Ecclesiastical vestments: their development and history

tihx<^xy of t:he t:heolo0ical ^eminarjo

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

PURCHASED BY THE

MRS. ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY

CHURCH HISTORY FUND

BV 167 .Mil 1896
Macalister, Robert Alexander
Stewart, 1870-1950.
- Ecclesiastical vestments

ECCLESIASTICAL VESTMENTS

EDITED BY

G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A.,

AND

T. FAIRMAN ORDISH, F.S.A.

Brass of Simon de Wenslagh (circ. 1360), Wensley,
Yorkshire (showing the Eucharistic vestments of a priest of
the Western Church).

THE CAMDEN LI BR ART

ECCLESIASTICAL VESTMENTS

^hcir Bebclopmcitt anb 2|tstarB

BV

R. A. S. MACALISTER, M.A.

Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland

LONDON :
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW

1896

P REFACE

WITHIN comparatively recent years the
discovery has been made that it is
possible to treat the Bible, for critical
purposes, as though it were an ordinary item of
national literature, while maintaining a fitting
reverence for it as the inspired Word ; and that
by so doing a flood of sidelight is cast upon it
which illuminates the obscurity of some of its most
dlflicult passages.

So, to compare lesser things with greater, it is
possible and advisable to discard all feeling of
ecclesiastlclsm (so to term it) when speaking of
ecclesiastical antiquities. The science of eccle-
siology is of comparatively recent growth, and
it has hitherto suffered much at the hands of
those who have approached it not so much to
learn the plain lessons it teaches, as to force it to
declare the existence or non-existence in early or

viii Preface.

mediaeval times of certain rites and observances.
While we should treat ancient churches and their
furniture with respect — a respect which should
not be denied to the despised, though often quaint
and interesting, high pews and west galleries —
as being edifices or instruments formed for the
use of the worshippers of God, yet for antiquarian
purposes they should be examined and dissected in
exactly the same spirit as that in which we investi-
gate the temples of ancient Greece, or the stone
weapons of prehistoric man. In this spirit the
author of the present book has worked.

Ecclesiology, besides its sentimental connection
with ecclesiasticism, possesses many features which
render it the most popular branch of the great
all-embracing science of archaeology. The objects
with which it is concerned appeal strongly to the
senses ; the finest works of the architect, the
limner, the silversmith, the engraver, the em-
broiderer, the illuminator, and the musician, come
within its scope ; they are accessible to all who
live within reach of an ancient church or a
moderately good museum, and the pleasant ex-
cursions and companionships with which its votaries
are favoured invest its pursuit with the happiest
associations. Above all, it lacks that terrible
obstacle which lies at the threshold of almost
every other subject of serious archaeological study
— the necessity of attaining perfection in at least

Preface. ix

one foreign language. No one can form more
than the merest dilettante acquaintance with the
antiquities of India, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, or any-
other country, without mastering the language in
which the records of the country are written ; but
the merest smattering of mediaeval dog-Latin is
quite sufficient to open the door to high (not,
perhaps, the highest') attainments in ecclesiology.

These manifold attractions have resulted in
hampering the study of ecclesiology with a serious
drawback, which is wanting in nearly all the other
branches of archaeology. The investigation of the
marvellous antiquities of the four countries just
mentioned — or, indeed, of almost any other
country — can be undertaken by a student with
the certainty that if he applies himself to it suffi-
ciently to master the many difficulties which will,
no doubt, present themselves, he will be in a
position to break ground as yet untouched ; his
knowledge will enable him to make original
discoveries of his own. But it is far otherwise in
ecclesiology. So easily understood are the facts of
the subject (except in a few obscure points relating
to the early Church) ; so definite are the statements
of the numberless records, when the vagaries of
symbolical theorizers are sifted away from them ;
so countless has been, and is, the army of students,
that the scope for research-work is reduced to a
minimum ; hardly anything is left for the originally-

X Preface,

minded worker but to discover the personal names
of the different artists whose handiworks he sees
before him, or else to propound some startling and
revolutionary theory respecting the use of low-side
windows or Easter sepulchres.

In the subdivision of ecclesiology with which
this book is concerned, originality, whether of fact
or treatment, is practically impossible. This work
cannot claim to be more than a compilation, but it
can claim to fill a space not exactly occupied by
any other book, in that it gives in a brief and
convenient form the principal facts connected with
vestments and their use throughout the chief sub-
divisions of the Christian Church ; it is not, as are
almost all other works on the subject, confined to
one branch only, or at most to the great Churches
of the West and the East, but includes as well the
smaller and more isolated communities, and those
branches of the Universal Church which have
undergone reformation.

Exception may possibly be taken to the manner
in which the alleged symbolism of vestments has
been treated. But it is impossible to overlook the
facts. If, as is now the opinion of every leading
ecclesiologist, the vestments are the natural result
of evolution from civil Roman costume, it is
clearly ludicrous to suppose that when they were
first worn they possessed the symbolical meanings
they are alleged to bear ; the symbolism is as

Preface. xi

much an accretion as are the jewels and the em-
broidery of the middle ages. Moreover, the
symbolical meanings attached to them are so
obviously the ' private judgments' of the writers
who describe them, and are so irreconcilable and
so far-fetched, that to the unbiased mind they do
not appear worthy of serious treatment.

In some recent books on ecclesiological and
antiquarian matters Greek words are transliterated
into English characters. This practice has not
been followed in the present work because of the
unsatisfactory appearance of Greek words in Roman
dress, and because the Greek alphabet is familiar
to all students. Words of other languages, such
as Russian or Armenian, are, however, expressed in
English letters, as their alphabets are not so well
known, and they are not so easily set up in native
type.

I must record my indebtedness to my lamented
friend the late Prof. Middleton for useful hints and
assistance ; to Dr F. R. Fairbank, of St Leonard' s-
on-Sea, for many notes and references which have
been of great value to me, and especially for the
loan of several blocks ; to Mr W. J. Kaye for
the loan of a rubbing of the Sessay brass ; to the
Rev. S. Schechter for kind assistance in questions
which arose in the first chapter ; to the Rev.
A. D. A. van Scheltema for information regarding
the Church of Holland ; and for many helps and

Xll

Preface.

suggestions to my father, to whom, in acknow-
ledgment of the interest he has throughout shown
in the preparation of the book, I wish to dedicate
it. A list of the principal works laid under con-
tribution is given in an Appendix.

R. A. S. M.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I

CHAPTER I.

THE GENESIS OF ECCLESIASTICAL VESTMENTS

CHAPTER H.

THE EARLY DEVELOPiMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL VEST-
MENTS IN THE WESTERN CHURCH - - 24

CHAPTER HI.

THE FINAL FORM OF VESTMENTS IN THE WESTERN

CHURCH

60

CHAPTER IV.

THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRO-
CESSIONAL VESTMENTS ; THE ORNAMENTATION
OF VESTMENTS - - - - "137

CHAPTER V.

THE VESTMENTS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES - 1 75

xiv Contents,

APPENDIX I.

PAGE

CHAPTER VI.

THE VESTMENTS OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES - 1 92

CHAPTER VII.

THE RITUAL USES OF VESTMENTS - - - 2 11

COSTUMES OF THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS - 235

MEDIAEVAL UNIVERSITY COSTUME - - -253

APPENDIX II.

AN INDEX OF SYNONYMOUS TERMS - - -257

APPENDIX III.

A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES REFERRED

TO IN THE COMPILATION OF THIS WORK - 258

INDEX ------ 262

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

{For full titles of sources follozved see Appendix III)

PIG. PAGE

BRASS OF SLMON DE WENSLAGH, WENSLEY, YORKS

Fro7itispiece

1. VESTMENTS OF THE JEWISH PRIESTHOOD. {After

Bock) - - - . - _ ^

2. BISHOP ADxMINISTERING BAPTISM. {Marriott) - 37

3. ECCLESIASTICS FROM THE MOSAICS IN S VITALE,

RAVENNA. {Rock) - - - - 46

4. EFFIGY OF A ROMAN CITIZEN IN CAERLEON

MUSEUM, {B/oxam) - - - - 49

5. POPE GREGORY THE GREAT WITH PASTORAL

STAFF. {Smith and Cheetham) - - 57

6. STOLE-ENDS, SHOWING VARIETIES IN FORM

AND ORNAMENT. {ArchcBological Association
/ourftal) - - - - - 73

7. ARCHBISHOP STIGAND, FROM THE BAYEUX

TAPESTRY. ( Willemin) - - - 76

8. DEACON IN EPISCOPAL DALMATIC. {BuHdiflg

News) - - - - - 78

9. DEACON IN DIAGONAL DALMATIC. {Rock) - 78
10. SIR PETER LEGH, KNIGHT AND PRIEST. {Huines) 84

xvi List of Illustrations,

FIG.

PAGE

11. BISHOP WAYNFLETE's EPISCOPAL SANDAL. . {Rock) 92

12. S DUNSTAN (fROM A MS. IN THE COTTONIAN

library). {Marriott) - - - 97

13. MONUMENT OF ALBRECHT VON BRANDENBURG,

MAYENCE - - - - - I 01

14. BISHOP WAYNFLETE's EPISCOPAL STOCKING. {Rock) I05

15. FIGURE OF A POPE {temp. INNOCENT III). {Rock) 108

16. A BISHOP, SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. {BloxaUl) - II7

17. MONUMENT OF DIETHER VON ISENBURG, MAYENCE II 7

18. PASTORAL STAFF AND MITRA PRETIOSA. {Bloxani) 1 20

19. BRASS OF ARCHDEACON MAGNUS, SESSAY, YORK-

SHIRE ------ 147

20. BRASS OF ROBERT BRASSIE, KING'S COLLEGE,

CAMBRIDGE - - - - " ^S©

21. CHRYSOME CHILD. {Haities) - - - 1 72
2 2. A COPE-CHEST, YORK MINsTER. {ArchcCologLCal

Associatiofi Journal) - - - - i73

23. ARMENIAN PRIEST. {Fortcscue) - - -177

24. MALABAR PRIEST. {Howard) - - - 1 78
25-28. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ECCLESIASTICS OF THE

EASTERN CHURCH. {King) - - 179-185

29. A SYNOD MEETING OF THE REFORMED CHURCH

OF FRANCE. {Quick) - - - - 205

30. DEACON IN FOLDED CHASUBLE, WELLS CATHEDRAL.

{Archceologia) - - - - - 216

ECCLESIASriCAL VESTMENTS,

CHAPTER I.

THE GENESIS OF ECCLESIASTICAL VESTMENTS.

THE Study of ecclesiastical history or an-
tiquities can be pursued from either of
two Standpoints. We may take into
account those essentially religious or theological
elements which distinguish this subject from all
other branches of antiquarian science, and keep
them prominently before us during our investiga-
tions ; or else, disregarding those elements more or
less completely, we may consider the subject wholly
from the point of view of the antiquary.

As a general rule, those investigators who lay
stress on the ecclesiastical rather than on the
antiquarian side of ecclesiology and its various
subdivisions have been attracted to the study not
so much by the intrinsic interest which, in some

I

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

degree, every branch of archaeology possesses, as
by the wish to settle controversial questions relating
to Church doctrine, usage, or discipline. This is
especially true of the important section of eccle-
siology with which these pages are concerned.
There are two schools into which the students of
Church vestments may be divided — the ritualistic
and the antiquarian. Each strives to attain full
knowledge of the subject, and the means employed
by both schools are the same — the evidence drawn
from a patient comparison of the works of authors
and artists of successive periods. But while those
of the purely antiquarian school regard the know-
ledge thus gained as in itself the chief end of their
researches, those of the other consider it rather as
a stepping-stone, leading to proofs of the Divine
appointment of the use of vestments, and in-
dicating regulations to govern the usage of vest-
ments in the modern Church.

It is not surprising that the results of the in-
vestigations of two schools, having aims so diverse
in view, should be mutually incompatible. Accord-
ing to the views of some members of the ritualistic
school, the vestments of the Christian Church were
modelled directly upon the vestments of the Jewish
priesthood ; and as minute instructions for the
shapes and usage of the latter were laid down in
the divinely-revealed laws of Moses, they thus
claim an at least indirect Divine appointment for

The Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments. 3

the Christian vestments. The antiquarian party,
on the other hand, are unanimous in holding that
the vestments of the Christian Church were evolved,
by a natural process, from the ordinary costume of
a Roman citizen of the first or second century of
our era.

The consideration of these two theories must
first occupy our attention. Neither is absolutely
correct ; for, although the balance of probability
is enormously in favour of the second view, yet
this theory, in the form in which it is often
stated, does not cover certain changes which
were made in the textures, outlines, and number
of the vestments while the Church was yet com-
paratively young. These changes were all intro-
duced to assimilate, as far as possible, the Jewish
and Christian systems ; and thus it may be said
that both views contain an element of truth.

The theory of a Levitical origin is the older ot
the two ; in fact, it was the first, and for many
years the only, solution proposed. We shall
therefore at the outset devote a page or two to
considering its merits. Very few, even among the
students of the ritualistic school, now hold it
absolutely. The weight of argument which can
be brought to bear against it is so great that it is
almost universally abandoned as untenable.

For comparative purposes, it will be necessary
at this stage to introduce a short descriptive

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

catalogue of the vestments of the Levitical priest-
hood, as prescribed in the Book of Exodus (chap,
xxviii). Josephus (* Antiquities,' iii 7) is also a
locus classicus on the subject, and some additional
particulars from that source are here incorporated :

I. The Drawers or ' Breeches ' of Linen,

II. The Tunic of Linen (' coat of fine linen,'
Exod. xxviii 39). — Josephus tells us that this
tunic was of fine linen or flax doubled ; that it
reached to the feet, fitting close to the body, and
was furnished with tight sleeves. It was girded
to the breast, a little above the level of the
elbows, by

III. The Girdle. — This was a strip of linen
which, according to Josephus, was four fingers
broad ; according to Maimonides,* three fingers
broad and thirty-two cubits long. It was wound
many times round the body ; the ends were then
tied over the breast and hung down to the feet,
except when the priest was engaged in sacrifice or
other service, in which case he threw it over his
left shoulder, so that it should not impede him in
his duty. It was elaborately embroidered with
flowers, worked in scarlet, purple, and blue
threads.

* Mishneh Torah, VIII, section de vasts sanctuar.,
viii 19, where some other particulars are to be found
regarding the textures of which the Jewish vestments were
made, etc.

The Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments, 5

IV. The Priest's Cap (' bonnet,' Exod. xxviii
40). — This was an ordinary turban, fastened round
the head. The description given by Josephus is

clear and detailed. He
says : * Upon his head he
wears a cap, not brought
to a conic form nor encir-
cling the whole head, but
still covering more than
half of it, which is called
mesnaemphthes ; and its
make is such that it
seemeth to be a crown
[garland], being made of
thick swathes, but the
^ contexture is of linen,
and it is doubled round
many times and sewed
together ; besides which,
a pieceof fine linencovers
the cap from the whole
upper part, and reaches down to the forehead and
hides the seams of the swathes, which otherwise
would appear improperly.'*

* Yirlp Se T?]^ Kecfidkris 4>opd ttIXov aKCOvov, ov ^uKVOvp.evov
els Tvacrav dvrriv, dXX' ctt' oXlyov, vTrep/SelS-qKOTa ^fiecrrjs '
KaXuTcii fxlv fj.€(Tvaefj4e'>]S. rrj Se KaraaKevy TOLodros ^(ttlv
(1)5 (rT€(/)av7/ SoK€lv, e^ vcfxiorfxaros, Xiveov racvia 7r€770irifM€vr]
iraxda, koI yap k-nrTva-crop^vov pdinerai TroXXaKis. e-etra

Fig. I. — Vestments of the
Jewish Priesthood.

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

These four vestments constituted the complete
equipment of the ordinary Jewish priest, as pre-
scribed in the Mosaic law. The high-priest, how-
ever, added four more, which were as follows :

V. The Tunic of Blue ('robe of the ephod,'
Exod. xxviii 31). — This was a long garment
which, according to some authorities, reached to
the feet, but according to others to the knees only.
It was woven in one piece, with an aperture
through which the head of the wearer was passed ;
this aperture was guarded by a binding or braid
to prevent it from tearing. Round the lower hem
of this garment were hung golden bells and models
of pomegranates, alternating one with another.
The meaning of this remarkable ornament is not
clear, and several explanations have been advanced
to account for it ; all, however, fanciful, and not
worth recording here.

VI . The Ephod ^ which was at once the most
elaborate and the most important of the Jewish
vestments, is more fully described than any of the
rest. The superiority of this vestment over the
others is due to the part which it, and the breast-
plate intimately connected with it, played in the
mysterious revelations by which the children of
Israel were guided during the period of the

cnv^uiv avioOiv dvTov iKirepikpyjerai SiyKOvaa fJ-^xpt /xertoTrov,
T^'jv T€ pa<fii]v T-qs Taivtas kul to drr' avT/Js dirpeTrh KaXvTT-
Tovcra — Translation from Whiston.

'The Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments. 7

Theocracy. For us, however, it would be as
irrelevant as it would be futile to speculate on
the nature of the revelation, or the instrumentality
of the ephod in indicating the Divine will to the
priest. We are here concerned only with the
ephod as an element in the equipment of the high-
priest, with its shape, and with such particulars of
its ritual use as we can find directly stated in the
different authorities.

' The ephod,' says Josephus, was * woven to the
depth of a cubit, of several colours [gold, blue,
purple, and scarlet are enumerated in Exodus] ;
it was made with sleeves also ; nor did it appear
to be at all differently made from a short coat.'*
The vestment seems to have consisted of two
pieces, a front and a back, which were buttoned
together by two onyx stones, one on each shoulder,
set in bezils or ' ouches,' and engraved with the
names of the twelve tribes, six on one, six on the
other. Round the waist was passed a girdle, which
was an essential part of the vestment — indeed,
Josephus tells us that the girdle and the ephod
were sewn together. This girdle, which was made
of materials similar to those which constituted the
ephod, seems to have been embroidered elaborately
with coloured threads.

■* Y<^av^ei5 €7rt (3ddos 7r7])(yaLOV eK re \pu)fxaTix)U TravTOiwv
Kal ■)(^pva-ov a-viximroLKiXixkvov , . . . xeipLcn re rjcTKrifxevos, kol
no Travrl a-^rjixari \LT(d)V dvai TTiTroL-qjikvos.

8 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

The ritual uses of the ephod, even apart from
its supernatural associations, are obscure. It is
distinctly implied both in Exodus and by Josephus
that the vestment was intended for the use of the
high-priest alone ; yet we find allusions scattered
through the early historical books of the Old
Testament which clearly indicate that it was worn
by others as well. Thus, we read in i Sam. xxii 1 8
that Doeg, commanded by Saul to fall on the
priests who had assisted David, * slew . . . four-
score and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.'
Again, Samuel, when a child in the service of the
priests, ' ministered before the Lord . . . girded
with a linen ephod' (i Sam. ii i8). Further, we
read that King David himself, when he escorted
the ark from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem,
was ' girded with a linen ephod.' In these three
passages we read of an ephod being worn by the
minor priest, the acolyte, and the layman, for none
of whom it was originally intended. The most
probable explanation seems to be that the ephod,
originally intended as a vestment for the high-priest
alone, was gradually assumed, probably in a less
elaborate form, by the minor priests as well — when
or how we cannot say. This explanation assumes
that the regulation was originally laid down as it
stands in Exodus; but it is possible that the more
stringent restrictions may not be earlier than the
recension of Ezra.

The Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments. 9

We learn from the incidents of Gideon (Judg.
viii 27) and of Micah (Judg. xvii 5 ; xviii 14
et seq.) that the ephod, or, rather, copies of it,
early became objects of superstitious veneration.
In the two latter passages quoted, as well as in
Hos. V 4, the vestment is coupled with the
teraphim or penates, to the worship of which the
Israelites showed marked inclination at different
periods of their history. It may be noticed in
passing that Ephod, which signifies 'giver of
oracles,' is used as a personal name (Num.
xxxiv 23).

VII. The Breastplate of the Ephod. — This was
a rectangular piece of cloth of the same material
as the ephod. That it might the better hold the
precious stones with which it was set, it was
doubled, its shape when so treated being that of a
perfect square, with a side of about nine inches
long. The stones were twelve in number, and
fixed in settings of gold, being arranged in four
rows of three each. On each stone was engraved
the name of one of the twelve tribes.

This breastplate was secured by two plaited or
twisted chains of gold, fastened at the one end to
the bezils of the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, at
the other to rings of gold in the upper corners
of the breastplate, and by two blue cords secured
to rings of gold in the lower corners of the breast-
plate and in the sides of the ephod above the

lo Ecclesiastical Vestments.

embroidered girdle. Josephus asserts that there
was an aperture in the ephod immediately under
the breastplate. For this statement there is no
Scriptural authority ; but it is possible that it is
the record of a modification in the details of the
vestment naturally evolved and established at some
time subsequent to the institution of the vestment
itself.

VIII. The Mitre. — This did not differ in
essence from the head-dress of the priests except
in one important respect — the addition of a gold
plate, set on a lace of blue, and bearing the
inscription, ' Holy to Jehovah.' Josephus does
not mention this plate, but describes the mitre as
a kind of triple tiara, surmounted by a flower-
shaped cup of gold, and covering the turban
proper."^ This, however, is quite at variance with
the original laws on the subject.

In one respect these vestments are similar to
those which it will be our duty to describe in the
following pages. Although there is no injunction
on the subject in the Law, the Talmud states
clearly that ' he who wears the vestments of the
priests outside the temple does a thing forbidden.'

* *Y7re/) avTov Se crvveppaixix^vos erepo'S e^ vaKivOov tt^ttol-
KiXfJiiVos, 7r€pup\€Tai 8k crT€(f)avo<s xpvcreo'i IttI t pi(TTOi\iav
KexaXK€Vjxhos. OdXXei S' ctt' avno kolXv^, xP^'^^^"^ '^V
aaKxdpti) (SoTavY) irap rjjjLiv Xeyofxevrj a7ro/x€yui/x7^/x€vos, vo<i Se
Kva/xov ^FiXXrjviov.

T^he Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments. 1 1

It is admitted by almost all students that the
vestments during the first six or eight centuries of
the Christian era were of much greater simpHcity
than those of later times. The evidence of con-
temporary art is overwhelmingly opposed to any
other view. This fact being admitted, we need
not be surprised by finding that until the eighth
or ninth century no attempt was made to trace
any connection between the elaborate vestments
which we have just described, and the vestments
worn by those who ministered in the offices of
Christian worship.

It is true that until the time we have mentioned
Churchmen did not greatly trouble themselves
with investigations into the history of the religion
they professed or the ritual they performed. But
it is also true that several authors before this date
enumerate the Jewish vestments, and enter at length
into the figurative meanings which they were alleged
to bear ; but not one of these refers to any supposed
genealogical connection — if the expression be per-
missible — between the two systems. This would
be inexplicable if the Christian vestments were
actually derived from the Jewish ; for not only
would the resemblance between the two be obvious,
but the tradition of the assumption by Christian
clerics of the vestments originally instituted for
the Jewish priesthood would still be fresh in the
minds of the authors. Yet not only do these

12 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

writers not point out any resemblance between
the two : they even make use of words and phrases
which point to considerable differences between the
outward appearance of Jewish and Christian vesture.
Apart from these considerations, may we not
ask with reason how the early Christians, a poor
and persecuted sect, could possibly assume and
maintain an elaborate and expensive system of
vestments such as the Jewish? And if the as-
sumption had been made after the days of per-
secution were past, surely some record of the
transaction would have been preserved till our own
day ? We possess a tolerably full series of the
acts and transactions of ecclesiastical courts in all
parts of the known world from the earliest times —
how is it that all record of such an important
proceeding has perished ?

The first hint of the idea of the Mosaic origin
of the Christian vestments is given by Rabanus
Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz, in his treatise ' De
Institutione Clericorum,'* written about the year
850. In the first book of this tract he discusses
each Christian vestment in turn, endeavouring to
find parallels to some of them among the vestments
of the Jewish priesthood, but without much success.
The seed thus sown, however, rapidly bore fruit
among subsequent writers, who expanded the
theory with great elaboration.
'^' I, cap. xiv et seq. (Migne, ' Patrologia,' vol. cvii, col. 306).

The Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments, 1 3

Many of the identifications brought forward by
some of the late writers are very far-fetched, and
mutually contradictory. To these but little weight
can be attributed. It is a significant fact that
none of the writers who endeavour to find parallels
between the two systems can discover an equivalent
among the Jewish vestments for the chasuble.
Now, if for each of the Christian vestments there
existed a corresponding vestment among those of
the Jews, it would be singular that the most
important of the former should be unrepresented
among the latter. The maniple, too, has no
equivalent (this, however, is more intelligible, since
that ornament was certainly a later introduction) ;
while the amice is the only vestment that even the
most ingenious can produce to represent the ephod,
though the similarity between the two is of the
slightest.

There is another important point which the
advocates of a Mosaic origin for Christian vest-
ments overlook. The early Christians certainly
did borrow many details of their worship from the
Jews who lived around them, and from whose
religion many of them had been converted ; but
these details were taken not from the antiquated
ritual of the temple worship, but from the syna-
gogue worship, to which they had been accustomed.
Now, the vestments which we have described above
were appointed for the tabernacle worship and the

14

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

temple worship, its direct successor, whereas no
vestments were at any time or by any authority
appointed for use in the synagogue worship f and
hence the Christian vesture cannot be said to * come
directly ' from the Jewish.

We have discussed the theory of a Levitical
origin on purely a priori grounds, making only
the slightest allusion to the vestments themselves
as we find them in primitive times. In considering
the second view, to which it is now time to turn,
we shall adopt a different course. We shall first
collect the main facts which can be discovered
or deduced respecting vestments in the earliest
centuries of Christianity, from the beginning till
the rupture of the East and the West, and then
discuss in detail the vestments as we find them in
the succeeding period, which in all ecclesiastical
matters was a period of transition, comparing each
in turn with its hypothetical prototype among the
civil costume of the Romans. The remainder of
the present and the whole of the succeeding chapter
will be devoted to this investigation.

The materials available for an inquiry into the
vestment usage of the early Church are twofold :
the incidental statements of contemporary authors,
and the more direct information obtained from a

* Such a vestment as the talith is not here considered, for
this is worn by all the worshippers alike, as well as hj the
officiating minister.

^Khe Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments. 1 5

study of contemporary paintings and sculpture.
We shall now discuss the results which follow
from an examination of these sources.

The references in the earliest writers — even
including those which have a very indirect bearing
on the subject — are extremely few in number ;
and all passages which can possibly throw any
light on the question have been eagerly sought
out and called into evidence to support one theory
or another. The two best-known passages are the
statement of St Jerome : * Holy worship hath one
habiit in the ministry, another in general use and
common life ' ;* and the yet more famous passage
in the liturgy of St Clement, in which a rubric
directs the priest to begin the service * girded with
a shining vesture.'j" The phrase Xa^Trpai^ eaOioTa
/iierev^vQ has been translated * being girded with
his " splendid " vestment,' a translation which the
Greek cannot possibly bear ; and this passage,
coupled with the excerpt from Jerome just quoted,
have been brought forward to testify that gorgeous
vestments were in use even at the early times when
thos;e documents from which they have been ex-
tracted were written.

"'•' Hieron. In Ezek., cap. xliv. * Religio divina alterum
habitum habet in ministerio alterum in usu vitaque communi.'

t Et'^a/xei/09 ovv KaO^ eavrov 6 dpxt^^p^vs a/xa rots UpevaLV
Kal \afM77pav i(Tdy]Ta fierevSvs Kal crras Trpbs T(^ dvcnacrTrjpLOi
TO TooiraLOv rod crravpov Kara tov parioTTOv tov X^tpl Troirja-d-

fl€VO<i; ClTTaTO) K,T.\.

1 6 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

Mr. Marriott has carefully examined and gom-
mented on these and the other passages cited as
authorities. He proves that the first passage given
above is used in a context which shows that
Jerome, though possibly he may have had Christian
usage in his mind, was thinking primarily of Jewish
usage ; the second (which not improbably is an
interpolation) does not specify a * splendid ' vesture,
but a ' white ' or ' shining ' garment.

Mr. Marriott's inference from these and similar
passages is ' that white was the colour appropriated
in primitive times [i.e., in the first four centuries]
to the dress of the Christian ministry.' Though
this view is preferable to the theory that the
primitive vestments were of the same elaborate
description as their mediaeval successors, yet it does
not altogether commend itself as following naturally
from the authorities cited. It will be necessai y to
review these passages, for, as we shall endeavour
to show, they are quite consistent with the third
alternative : that no distinctive vestments were set
apart for the exclusive use of the Christian minister
during the first four centuries of the Christian era.

The third passage is also from Jerome. In
another part of the same commentary as the last
he writes : ' From all these things we learn that
we ought not enter the Holy of Holies clad in our
everyday garments and in whatever clothes we
will, defiled as they are by the usage of common

77?^ Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments, ly

life ; but with pure conscience and in pure garments
we ought to hold the sacraments of the Lord.'*

The fourth passage is from Jerome's letter
against the Pelagians, in which occur these re-
markable words : * You say, further, that gor-
geousness of apparel or ornament is offensive to
God. But, I ask, suppose I should wear a comelier
tunic, wherein would it offend God ? or if bishop,
priest, deacon, and the rest of the church officers
were to come forward dressed in white V'\

Only one other passage remains. This is the
account of the charge preferred against Cyril,
Bishop of Jerusalem, before the Emperor Con-
stantius. It is narrated in Theodoret (Eccl.
Hist., ii 27), and, not being worth quoting at
length, may be briefly stated thus : Constantine
had sent to Macarius, the then bishop, a sacred
robe — Uciav aroXw — made of threads of gold, to be
worn when administering baptism ; Cyril had sold
this robe to a stage-dancer, who wore it during a

* ' Per quae discimus non quotldianis et quibuslibet pro
usu vitae communis pollutis vestibus nos ingredi debere in
sancta sanctorum sed munda conscientia et mundis vestibus
tcnere Domini sacramenta.' — Hieron. in Ezek., cap. xliv.

f 'Adjungis gloriam vestium et ornamentorum Deo esse
contraiiam. Quae sunt rogo inimicitiae contra Deum si
tunicam habuero mundiorem ? si episcopus presbyter et
diaconus et reliquus ordo ecclesiasticus in administratione
sacrificiorum Candida veste processerint ?' — Hieron., Adv.
Pelagianos, lib, i, cap. 9.

2

1 8 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

public exhibition. It was further stated that the
stage-dancer had fallen while dancing and been
fatally injured.

As the reader will see, these passages give but
few data for deductions as to the vestment-usage
in the early Church. There is no indication, for
instance, in the passage from Theodoret of what
sort the sacred robe in question was : it may just
as well have been a splendid garment originally
from some temple or other. The fact that the
early Greek ecclesiastical writers do not use the
word GToXi] to denote a sacred vestment further
weakens the force of this anecdote as an argument.
Only Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople (early
seventh century), supplies another instance, where
he says : i] aroXri tov lepetjQ . . . Kara rov no^rj^r]
AapCjv ; and this latter passage can be explained
away, as 0-70X77 refers here to Jewish vesture, in
which connection it is also employed by the
Septuagint.

On a careful and unbiased reading of these
passages, it will be noticed that nothing is said
which can be construed into denoting garments of
a special prescribed shape, and that their colour is
only specified by such indefinite words as Xafnrpoq
and Candidas.

It is also important to notice that although in
the first and third of the passages cited from
Jerome a more special mention is made of the

The Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments, 1 9

dress of the clergy, yet it is not straining the
meaning of either of them to regard them as
applying equally well to the dress of the lay
worshippers. This, of course, would preclude the
supposition that they deal with any special ritual
observance. The second of these quotations, if
translated into homely nineteenth-century language,
resolves itself into a simple but strong injunction
to all worshippers (not the minister only) to wear
their Sunday clothes. Mr Marriott lays great
stress on the passage in the letter against Pelagius ;
its testimony is one of the strongest arguments
which he can bring forward to support his thesis,
that it was specially appointed, in the primitive
church, that white vestments (something like the
modern surplice) should be worn by the minister.
But Jerome does not say, * Is God displeased
because the officers of the church dressed Candida
veste ?' but ' would God be displeased if they
were so vested.^' The entire passage is hypo-
thetical ; and nothing is more clear than that
Jerome was not contemplating any hard and fast
rules.

We may dismiss the passage from the Clemen-
tine Liturgy with very few words. Aa^irpog^
which the ritualists translate ' splendid,' in classical
Greek always means ' bright, brilliant, radiant,'* and

* See Liddell and Scott, Greek Lexicon, edit, maj., sub

20 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

is applied in Homer to the sun and stars. It is also
applied, in the sense of ' bright,' to white clothes ;
indeed, we find in Polybius^ {flor, circa 150 B.C.)
this very phrase, Xajnirpa kaQiK, equivalent to the
Roman /^^<^ Candida. Other meanings are *limpid'
(of water), ' sonorous ' (of the voice), ' fresh,
vigorous ' (of action), * manifest,' ' illustrious,'
'munificent,' * joyous,' 'splendid' (generally, in
outward appearance, health, dress, language, etc.);
but it never wears the definite meaning which we
should expect were the word intended to be
applied to a definite vesture. The Xa^iTrpa kM^q
of the Clementine Liturgy is, in short, a bright,
clean robe, but no more an article of an ex-
clusively ecclesiastical nature than is the ' fair
white linen cloth ' with which the rubric of the
Anglican Communion Service directs the altar to
be covered.

Another passage, somewhat later in date, may be
cited as a type of a large class of passages very apt
to mislead too credulous students. It is the
Gaulish description of St Berignus cited by Lipo-
manus (de Vitis Sancton, Ed. Surius, Venice,
1 58 1, vol. vi, p. 4), ' Vidi quendam hominem
peregrinum, capite tonso, cujus habitus differt ab
habitu nostro, vitaque eius nostrae dissimilis est.'
The context, however, makes it plain that secular,
not religious, dress is intended.

* Polyb., 10, 5, I.

The Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments. 21

And when we refer to the few early frescoes
and mosaics which have come down to us from
the primitive epoch, we find ecclesiastics, apostles,
and Our Lord Himself, represented as habited in
the tunic and toga or pallium of Roman everyday
life.

We gather, therefore, from these scattered shreds
of evidence that, during the first centuries of the
Christian church, no vestments were definitely
set apart for the exclusive use of the clergy
who officiated at Divine service : that clergy and
people wore the same style of vesture both in
church and out, subject only to the accidental dis-
tinctions of quality and cleanliness.

Fashion in dress or ornament is subject to
constant changes which, though perhaps individu-
ally trifling, in time amount to complete revolu-
tions ; but the devotees of any religion, true or
false, are by nature conservative of its doctrines
or observances. Combined with the conclusions
at which we have just arrived, these two universally
recognised statements yield us presumptive evidence
of the truth of the theory which views the Roman
civil dress as the true progenitor of mediaeval
ecclesiastical costume. We have seen that at
first the worshippers wore the same costume
both at worship and at home. Fashion would
slowly change unchecked from year to year,
while ecclesiastical conservatism would retard

22 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

such changes so far as they concerned the dress
worn at Divine service : small differences would
spring into existence between everyday dress
and the dress of the worshipper, and these differ-
ences, at first hardly perceptible, would increase
as the process went on, till the two styles of
costume became sharply distinguished from one
another.

Parallel cases are not wanting to show that this
is not altogether mere random theorizing. For
example, the ministers of the Reformed Church of
Holland maintained, till comparatively recently, a
picturesque fashion of dress over a century old,
which they wore only when conducting Divine
service.^ Perhaps, however, the objection may
be urged against this view of the case, that if the
process were such as we have described, it should
apply as weJl to the worshippers as to the minister :
that they, as well as he, should wear service-robes.
It is possible that this would actually have been
the case had the church services maintained their
most primitive form, as St Paul describes it in the
First Epistle to the Corinthians : ' When ye come
together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a
doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath
an interpretation ' ; f that is, had all the wor-
shippers maintained an equally prominent position

* See Chapter VI.
t I Cor. xiv 26.

T^he Genesis of Ecclesiastical Vestments. 23

instead of selecting one of their number to con-
duct their services. At it was, the outstanding
position of the minister rendered his equipment
especially liable to such stereotyping as we have
imagined.

In the following chapter we shall submit the
truth of this theory to a test. If the genesis of
ecclesiastical vestments actually took place in some
such manner as this, then the vestments as we
find them described in the earliest writers ought to
bear conspicuous points of resemblance to the civil
costume of the Roman people during the first three
Christian centuries. We shall now inquire whether
this be so.

CHAPTER II.

THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL
VESTMENTS IN THE WESTERN CHURCH.

THE last chapter has carried us down to
the end of the fourth century a. d. For
some time back the Roman Empire had
been showing signs of disintegration. Already
the three sons of Constantine had divided the
imperial power among themselves ; but the rule
thus severed had again been united in the person
of Constantius. In 395, however, the emperor
Theodosius died, and left the empire of the world
to be parted between his two sons, Arcadius and
Honorius.

It would be outside our scope to enter into the
details of the far-reaching consequences of this
great event. For our present purpose it is suf-
ficient to state that, with the empire in which it
had been born and nurtured, the church was
divided into two parts, which were thenceforth to

Early Development of Vestments, 25

develop independently, now in parallel, now in
widely divergent lines.

It will be convenient to regard the first chapter
as dealing with the period between the institution
of Christianity and the partition of the Roman
Empire ; and in the present chapter to discuss the
interval between the latter event and the accession
of Charles the Great. We thereby divide the
history into two epochs of approximately four
centuries each, with characteristics sufficiently well
marked to distinguish one from the other.
Following Marriott, we shall name the first the
primitive, the second the transitional period. We
have seen that there is no evidence that vestments
of any definite form were prescribed for use during
the former epoch ; we shall see in the present
chapter how vestment-usage rapidly developed in
the churches of the West till it culminated in the
gorgeous enrichment of medieval times.

Although the difi-erences between the vestments
of the Western and the Eastern churches consist
largely in matters of detail, they are sufficiently
conspicuous, and their histories are sufficiently
divergent, to render their independent treatment
advisable. We shall therefore postpone the dis-
cussion of the latter till we have investigated the
evolution and subsequent elaboration of the
former.

The empire to which Honorius succeeded con-

26 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

sisted of Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Britain. Although
the evidence which is extant does not permit us to
trace completely the history of vestments through-
out this period, yet from scattered documents we
are able to see that for the most part the develop-
ment of ecclesiastical costume proceeded on the
same lines throughout this vast area.

Ritual in matters of dress had rapidly been
growing. Pope Celestine, who occupied the Roman
See from 423 till 432, found it necessary to write
a sharp letter to the Bishops of Vienne and Nar-
bonne for * devoting themselves rather to super-
stitious observances in dress than to purity of
heart and faith.' Certain monks, it appears, had
attained to episcopal rank, but had retained their
ascetic costume. Some of Celestine's sentences are
very striking in this connection ; and although
they refer primarily to out-door costume, we
cannot but think that, in a later age, when the
regulations governing the ritual uses of vestments
had been formulated, and the vestments themselves
had been elaborated to their ultimate form, the
force of his words would have been somewhat
modified. 'By dressing in a cloak [pallium'],' he
says, * and by girding themselves with a girdle,
they think to fulfil the truth of Scripture, not in
the spirit, but in the letter. For if these precepts
were given to the end that they should be obeyed
in this wise, why do they not likewise that which

T^he Early Develop?nent of Vestments. 27

follows, and carry burning lights in their hands
as well as their pastoral staves ? We should be
distinguished from the common people, or from
all others, by our learning, not by our dress ; by
our habit of life, not by our clothing ; by the
purity of our minds, not by the cut of our
garments. For if we begin to introduce novelties,
we shall trample under foot the usage which our
fathers have handed down to us, and give place to
vain superstitions/

The fullest information on the subject of vest-
ments during this period comes from Spain, in the
oft-quoted acts of the fourth council of Toledo,
which sat under the presidency of St Isidore of
Seville in the year G^Z- Of the canons which
were drawn up at this council that which is of the
highest importance in this inquiry is the twenty-
eighth, although it is not directly connected with
vestment-usage. It provides for the case of a
cleric who had been unjustly degraded from his
order, and ordains that such a one, if he be found
innocent in a subsequent synod, ' cannot be rein-
stated in his former position unless he regain his
lost dignities before the altar, at the hands of a
bishop. If he be a bishop, he must receive the
ovarium,^ ring, and staff; if a priest, the orarium

* Throughout this chapter I have retained the Latin
words orariu7n, planeta and alba in preference to the English
translations 'stole,' 'chasuble,' and 'alb,' when treating of

28 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

and planeta ; if a deacon, the ovarium and alba ;
if a subdeacon, the paten and chaHce, and similarly
for the other orders — they must receive, on their
restoration, whatever they received on their ordi-
nation.'*

On the principle which is all but universal, that
the clergy of the higher orders added the insignia
of the lower orders to those of their own, we are
enabled by the help of this act to draw up a table
of the vestments recognised in Spain, which shows
at a glance the manner in which they were dis-
tributed among the different orders of clergy :

^/i?a : worn by all alike.

Orarium : worn by deacons, priests, and bishops.

Planeta : worn by priests and bishops.

Ring and staff : exclusively for bishops.

Some letters of Gregory the Great (Bishop of
Rome 590-604) give us particulars relating to

the vestments of the early church. The two are not iden-
tical, and it is convenient to have a short method of distin-
guishing one from the other.

* * Episcopus presbyter aut diaconus si a gradu suo iniuste
delectus in secunda synodo innocens reperiatur non potest
esse quod fuerat nisi gradus amissos recipiat coram altario de
manu episcopi ; (si episcopus) orarium annulum et baculum ;
si presbyter orarium ct planetam ; si diaconus orarium et
albam ; si subdiaconus patenam et calicem ; sic et reliqui
gradus ea in reparationem sui recipiant quae cum ordinarentur
perceperunt.' [The bracketed words have dropped out from
the MS., but their restoration is certain and necessary.]

The Early Development of Vestrnents. 29

three other vestments not in general use through-
out the church. These are the dalmatica, the
7nappula, and the pallium. Lastly, an anonymous
MS. of uncertain date* enumerates the pallium,
casula, manualia^ vestimentwm, alba, and stola
as the vestments worn in the Gallican Church.
It is to be regretted that none of the British
authors of the period have preserved any record
of contemporary vestment -usage in this country;
we have, however, no reason to suppose that it
differed from that of the Continent.

Let us now take each of the above vestments in
order, and collect whatever information is obtain-
able upon their appearance and history, comparing
each in turn with its supposed Roman prototype.

I. The Alba. — This word is the abbreviated
form of the full name, tunica alba, by which a
flowing tunic of white linen was denoted. It
appears that the first use of this word as a
technical term for a special robe is in a passage
of Trebellius Pollio (in Claud., xiv, xvii), who

* This MS. is edited in Martene's Thesaurus Anec-
dotorum, vol. v, p. 86 et seq., and extracts are made from it
in Marriott's work, p. 204. The MS. was found in the
monastery of St Martin at Autun, and is assigned by Mar-
tene to the sixth century, though on doubtful grounds.
Marriott is probably correct in referring it to the tenth.
As the vestments which it describes rather resemble those of
the final period than of the transitional, we reserve its dis-
cussion till the following chapter.

30 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

speaks of an alha suhserica^ mentioned in a letter
sent from Valerian to Zosimio, Procurator of Syria,
about 260-270 A.D. In the 41st canon of the
fourth council of Carthage {circa 400 a.d.)* we
meet with the first use of this word in an ecclesi-
astical connection, in one of the earliest (if not
the earliest) regulations ever passed to govern the
ritual usage of vestments. This ordains that the
deacon shall wear an alha only ^tempore ohla-
tionis tantum vel lectionis'

The constant evidence of contemporary pictures
indicates that the alha was a long, full, and flowing
vesture. In this respect it differed from the Mosaic
tunic, on the one hand, and the mediaeval alb on
the other. Both these vestments fitted closely to
the body for reasons of convenience, for a flowing
tunic would obviously hamper the Levitical priest
in the discharge of his sacrificial duties, and would
not sit comfortably under the vestments with
which it was overlaid in mediaeval times.

Nearly two centuries after the fourth council
of Carthage we find the first council of Narbonne
(a.d. 589) enacting that * neither deacon nor sub-
deacon, nor yet the lector, shall presume to put
off his alba till after mass is over.'f To this

* Labbe, Sacrosancta Concilia (1671), vol. ii, col. 1203.

t * Nee diaconus aut subdiaconus certe vel lector ante-
quam missa consummetur alba se prassumat exuere.' — Concil.
Narb., i, Labbe, vol. v, col. 1030 (misprinted 1020).

The Early Development of Vestments, 3

canon, which was clearly framed to check some
tendency to irregularity that had become notice-
able in the celebration of mass, we are indebted
for two facts : first, that ritual usage in vestments
was now firmly established ; and second, that the
alba was the dress of the minor orders of clergy.
This latter point is not clearly brought out in the
Toletan canon already quoted.

Of the garments worn in everyday life by the
Roman citizen, the innermost was the tunica talaris,
or long tunic. This article of dress was white,
usually of wool ; it was passed over the head and
reached to the feet, the epithet talaris (' reaching
to the ankles') being employed to distinguish it, as
the tunic of ceremony, from the short tunics worn
when freedom was required for active exertion.'"'^
It fitted tolerably closely to the body, though it
was sufficiently loose to require a girdle to confine
it. The tunics of senators and equites were dis-
tinguished by two bands of purple, in the former
case broad {lati clavi), in the latter narrow {angusti
clavi), which passed from the sides of the aperture
for the head down to the lower hem of the
garment.

A comparison of the ecclesiastical tunica alba
with the civil tunica talaris will bring out some
remarkable points of resemblance. Both were

* It was also possible and usual to gird up the tunica talaris
for this purpose.

32 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

worn in the same manner, and both reached to the
feet ; it is true that the ecclesiastical dress was
slightly fuller than the civil, but this was necessary,
as room was required underneath the alba for the
wearer's everyday dress. Further, we find ecclesi-
astics represented in ancient frescoes wearing albae
which actually show ornaments disposed like the
clavi of the tunica talaris. These clavi were early
employed by the Christians to distinguish, by their
relative width, the representations of Our Lord from
those of the Apostles, or to discriminate between
the figures of ecclesiastics of different orders.

It is also important to notice that the alba is
invariably furnished with tight sleeves reaching to
the wrist. The tunic was originally a sleeveless
garment ; but with the growth of luxury, a new
kind provided with sleeves gradually came into
favour. These two forms of tunic were distin-
guished by different names : the older or sleeveless
tunic was called colobium^ a Latinization of the
Greek name /coXojSioi/ ;* and the latter or sleeved
tunic was named tunica manicata or tunica dalmatica^
from the name of the province to which its inven-
tion was ascribed.

In the early days of Rome the use of a tunica
dalmatica stamped the wearer with the stigma of
effeminacy and utter want of self-respect. The

''' Derived from the adjective ko\o/36s, docked, curtailed, in
reference to the shortened sleeves of the garment.

T^he Early Development of Vestments. 33

parents of Cornelius Scipio and of Fabius are said
to have openly disgraced them in their boyhood,
as a punishment ad corrigendos mores, by com-
pelling them to appear in public in this attire.
The despicable emperors Commodus and Elaga-
balus offended all persons of good taste by coming
out before all the people in the same costume :
the latter impudently calling himself another
Scipio or Fabius, in reference to the incident just
related.* This, however, cannot mean that the
scandal lay in the adoption of the luxurious tunica
dalmatica in preference to the colohium (for Rome
in the time of Elagabalus was too deeply steeped
in luxury and vice to feel shocked at an Emperor
merely preferring an under-garment with sleeves
to one without those appendages) ; it rather con-
sisted in his neglecting to put on his 'pallium, or
outer dress, over it. In fact, the tunica dalmatica
must have quite ousted its severer rival in popular
favour by the time of Elagabalus : for we find that
in 258, only thirty-six years after the death of that
emperor, St Cyprian of Carthage wore a tunica
dalmatica, over which was a hyrrhus, or cloak,
when led out to martyrdom. f It is absurd to
suppose that Cyprian, on such a solemn occasion,

* Lampridius in Commodo, cap. viii ; in Elagab., cap.
xxvi.

t Acta S Cyp., prop. Jin. (Migne, Patrologia, vol. iii,
col. 1504).

3

34 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

would have assumed a merely luxurious garment,
and equally absurd to imagine that he would have
worn ecclesiastical vestments at the time, as some
commentators on the passage have held. There
remains only one other alternative — that the
tunica dalmatic a was the form of tunic which was
in regular use at the time, and this seems quite
the most satisfactory hypothesis.

The most important mention of the tunica
dalmatica in connection with ecclesiastical matters
is in the decree of Sylvester, Bishop of Rome,
253-257. That prelate ordained 'that deacons
should use the dalmatica in the church, and that
their left hands should be covered with a cloth
of mingled wool and linen.'* Various authors
supplement this passage ; thus, the anonymous
author of the tract ' De Divinis Officiis,' formerly
attributed to Alcuin, tells us that * the use of
dalmaticae was instituted by Pope Sylvester, for
previously colohia had been worn.'f

Much importance has been attached to this
decree. It is regarded as an additional and in-
controvertible proof that ecclesiastical vestments

* * Ut diaconi Dalmatica uterentur in ecclesia et pallio
linostimo laeva eorum tegeretur.' — Anastasius Bibliothecarius
de Vit. Pontif., § 35 (S Sylv.) ; Migne, Patrol., vol. cxxvii,

J514.

t ' Usus autem Dalmaticarum a B. Sylvestro Papa insti-
tutus est: nam antea colobiis utebantur.' — Pseudo-Alcuin
de Div. Off., cap. xxxix ; Migne, vol. ci, 1243.

The Early Development of Vestments, 35

were in use in the primitive church. But on
examination, however, it will be found no more
to bear such a construction than St Paul's request
for his f^aiKovx). The ordinance merely shows that
Sylvester had a laudable desire to improve the
aesthetics of public worship, and, with this end
in view, decreed that thenceforward ecclesiastics
should all wear the tunica dalmatica — which had
quite outgrown its early evil reputation, and
must be admitted to have been a better-lookino-
garment than the scanty and somewhat undigni-
fied colobium. It is not at all improbable that
many of the clergy wore dalmaticae even before
Sylvester's edict : in this case the edict would
have the additional advantage of securing uni-
formity.

All attempts to set up the dalmatica as a
separate vestment in early times fail hopelessly.
It is unknown to the drafters of the Toletan
canons, and no early representation of an ecclesiastic
is extant having two vestments visible under the
planeta* This would certainly be the case if the
two were independent vestments. It is true that
St Isidore of Seville wrote, ' Dalmatica vestis
primum in Dalmatia provincia Graecia texta est
sacerdotalis, Candida cum clavis ex purpura ;'t
(the dalmatica is a priestly vestment first made in

* This does not apply to the city of Rome. See p. 54.
t Etymologiae, lib. xix, cap. xxii (Migne, Ixxxii 635).

36 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

Dalmatia, a province of Greece, white with purple
clavi) ; but the concluding words show that he
was merely thinking of the alba under its more
specific name, dalmatic a,

A brief recapitulation of this somewhat lengthy
argument may not be out of place. Two forms
of tunic may be said to have contended one with
another for the favour of the Roman people — the
sleeveless colobium and the sleeved dalmatica. The
latter ultimately gained the victory ; and the
decree of Pope Sylvester, commanding all eccle-
siastics under his authority to assume it in place
of the former, finally established its use in the
church. Now, when we find that, two or three
centuries after Sylvester's time, a vestment was
worn by ecclesiastics in Divine service identical
with the tunica dalmatica in almost every respect,
even to the presence of the clavi^ which (in the
secular dress) indicated the rank of the wearer, it
is only natural to regard the one as directly derived
from the other.

There is one other point of importance in the
history of this vestment in the transitional period.
It was found that such a flowing garment as the
alba seriously incommoded the priest on some
occasions, particularly in administering baptism by
immersion. Accordingly, an alba fitting closely
to the body was invented for use on such occasions,
and is represented in certain MS. illuminations,

T^he Early Development of Vestments, i^j

particularly a ninth-century pontifical now in the
St Minerva Library at Rome. The special im-
portance of this point is due to the fact that this
baptismal alba was probably the immediate parent
of the mediaeval alb ; the closer vestment being
found more convenient on other occasions as well
as that of baptism, and having gradually become

Fig. 2.— a Bishop administering Baptism.

adopted in all the other offices of the Church as
well.

II. The 07'arium. — Both this vestment and the
name by which it was known have given much
trouble to scholars. The following list of the
various derivations which have been suggested for
the word orarium (arranged in order of probability)
is not uninteresting :

38 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

1. Ora, because used to wipe the face.

2. Orare, because used in prayer.

3. wpa, because it indicated the time of the different parts

of the service.

4. iopaL^€Lv, because the deacon was beautified with it.

5. Ora (a coast), because (alleged to have been) originally

the edging of a lost garment.

6. 6/)a(o, because the siglt of it indicated whether a priest

or deacon was ministering (!).

There can be little doubt that the first is the
true etymology. The others are all more or less
fanciful ; and the orarium was certainly employed
originally as a scarf Ambrose speaks of the face
of the dead Lazarus being bound with an orarium;
and Augustine uses the same word to indicate a
bandage employed to tie up a wounded eye.

Numerous effigies of late date are extant which
exhibit a kind of scarf, passing over the left
shoulder diagonally downwards to the right side,
and fastened under the right arm. As Albertus
Rubenius long ago pointed out, these scarves must
not be confused with the clavi which ornamented
the tunics of senators and equites ; for they are
worn over the pallium^ or outer garment, and are
disposed in a manner quite different from that in
which the clavi fall.

What, then, are these scarves } The answer to
this question is supplied by Flavius Vopiscus in his
Life of Aurelian, who, he says, ' was the first to
grant oraria to the Roman people, to be worn as

'The Early Development of Vestments. 39

favours/"^ Now, the references which we have
just made to Ambrose and Augustine — not to
mention others which might equally well be
quoted — show that the oraria, whatever may have
been the method in which they were worn, must
have been narrow strips of some kind of cloth.
These peculiar scarves, which are to be seen on
certain monuments, do not appear on any effigy
dating before the time of Aurelian ; the natural
inference, therefore, is that the scarves which we
see thus represented are actually the oraria^ granted
to the Roman people by that emperor and his
successors. If this argument be not valid, then it
is impossible to say either what these scarves really
are, or what was the true appearance of the civil
ovarium.

It is probable that considerable laxity existed in
the manner of wearing the ecclesiastical orarium,
for the fourth Council of Toledo thought it
necessary to enact a special canon to regulate the
method in which this vestment should be disposed.
The fortieth act of this assembly restricts the
number of or aria to one, and enjoins that deacons
should wear the orarium over the left shoulder,
leaving the right side free so as to facilitate the

* 'Sciendum . . . ilium . , . primum donasse oraria populo
Romano quibus uteretur populus ad favorem.' — Flav. Vop.
in Aur., 48.

40 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

execution of their duties in Divine service.'"* This
act also provides that the diaconal ovarium should
be plain, not ornamented with gold or embroidery.
It will be noticed that this Toletan council
favoured the derivation of the word or avium from
or are.

The wearing of the ov avium was still flirther
regulated by two of the councils which met at
Braga. The second council of Braga (563 a.d.)
decreed that ' since in some churches of this
province the deacons wear their ovavia hidden
under the tunic, so that they cannot be distin-
guished from the subdeacons, for the future they
must be placed over their shoulders. 'f The fourth

"* ' Orariis duobus nee episcopo quidem licet nee presby-
tero uti ; quanto magis diacono qui minister eorum est.
Unum igitur orarium oportet Levitam gestare in sinistro
huraero propter quod orat, id est, praedicat ; dextram autem
partem oportet habere liberam ut expeditus ad ministerium
sacerdotale discurrat. Caveat igitur amodo gemino uti orario
sed uno tantum et puro nee ullis eoloribus aut auro ornato.' —
Aeta Coneil. Tolet. IV, cap. xl.

This rule does not seem to have been always obeyed. In
the Pontifical of Landulfus (ninth century) there is a repre-
sentation of an ecclesiastic wearing two oraria, one over each
shoulder. This, however, must be regarded as exceptional.

t * Item placuit ut quia in aliquantis huius provlnciae
ecclesiis diacones {sic) absconsis infra tunicam utuntur orariis
ita ut nihil differre a subdiacono videantur de cetero super-
posito scapulae (sieut decet) utantur orario.' — Acta Coneil.
Braear. II, cap. ix : Labbe, vol. v, col. 841. The eleventh

The Early Development of Vestments. 4 1

council (675 A.D.) made an important decree
regulating the wearing of the orarium by priests,
which has been since followed universally. The
vestment was to be passed round the neck, over
each shoulder, crossed in front, and secured in this
position under the girdle of the alba.^

The last enactment of importance is that of
the council of Mayence (813 a.d.), which ordered
that priests should wear their oraria 'without
intermission.'t

canon ordained ' ut Icctores in ecclcsia in habitu saeculari
ornati non psallant.'

■* *Cum antiqua ecclesiastica noverimus institutione prae-
fixum ut omnis sacerdos cum ordinatur orario utroque humero
ambiatur ; scilicet ut qui imperturbatus praecipitur consistere
inter prospera et adversa, virtutum semper ornamento utro-
bique circumseptus appareat : qua ratione tempore sacrificii
non assumat, quod se in sacramento accepisse non dubitatur ?
Proinde modis omnibus convenit ut quod quisque percepit
in consecratione, hoc et retentet in oblatione, vel perceptione
sude salutis ; scilicet ut cum sacerdos ad sollennia missarum
accedit aut pro se Deo sacrificium oblaturus, aut sacramentum
corporis et sanguinis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi sumpturus,
non aliter accedat, quam orario utroque humero circum-
septus, sicut et tempore ordinationis suae dignoscitur consecra-
turus : ita ut dc uno eodemque orario cervicem pariter et
utrumque humerum premens, signum in suo pectore prae-
ferat crucis. Si quis autem aliter egerit excommunication!
debitae subiacebit.' — Concil. Bracar. IV, cap. iv : Labbe,
vol. vi, coll. 564, 565.

f ' Presbyteri sine intermissione utuntur orariis propter

42 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

The orarium^ then, was a narrow strip of cloth,
disposed about the persons of the clergy in various
manners according to their rank. To it corre-
sponded in name, shape, and method of disposi-
tion, a garment common among the Romans,
though admittedly rather an honourable ornament
than an actual article of clothing. Yet when we
remember how the clavi were employed to dis-
tinguish rank among the earlier clergy, this latter
fact may be regarded as strengthening the evidence
of identity which the correspondence in all salient
features affords. Some other theories of its origin
will be discussed when we have treated of the
pallium.

III. The Planeta. — In the earlier and purer
days of the Roman people, the dress which alone
was recognised as the proper costume for the
citizen was the toga. This was one of the most
inconvenient and cumbrous articles of dress ever
invented — a great oblong cloth, fifteen feet by ten,
thrown in a complicated manner over the left
shoulder, folded in front, and hanging loose about
the feet. We can hardly feel surprised at finding
that, when the citizens came to regard comfort
before appearances to such an extent as to adopt
sleeved tunics, a more convenient form of this

difFerentiam sacerdotis dignitatis.' — Concil. Mogunt. cap.
xxviii : Labbe, vol. vii, col. 1249.

The Early Development of Vestments. 43

outdoor costume was adopted. There were three
varieties of this new* garment, each of which has
its own name ; these were the paenula, the casula^
and the planeta.

The paenula was a garment which in the early
days of the Republic was allotted to slaves. A
slave wearing this dress is introduced into the
' Mostellaria ' (IV iii 51) of Plautus. Indeed,
according to Julius Pollux ('Onomasticon,' vii 61),
the dramatist Rhinthon, who lived in the fourth
century b.c, introduced a mention of this garment
into his ' Iphigeneia in Tauris,' a fact which would
seem to indicate that the dress was much older
than his own time, as otherwise his audience
would be unfavourably impressed by the anachron-
ism. Numerous allusions in classical Latin authors
show that it was adopted as a travelling dress
because of its warmth and comparative con-
venience ^^ but on no account was it worn within
the walls of the city. Gradually, however, the use
of the garment spread, till Alexander Severus
(222-235 A.D.), as Lampridius tells us, permitted
elders to wear the paenula within the city in cold

* Or, to speak more accurately, new adaptation of an old
garment. The paenula, for instance, had long been worn by
the lower classes, being cheap and warm.

t Though it was by no means adapted to active exertion.
See Cicero, pro Milone, capp. x, xx.

44 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

weather, though at the same time he forbade
women to do so except when on a journey.*

The casula was a poor and inferior variety of
the paenula^ which, when the latter was promoted
to be the costume of senators and emperors, suc-
ceeded it as the garb of the poorer classes. The
original meaning of the name is * little house ' —
a diminutive of casa — and there is little evidence
to guide us as to the exact appearance of the
garment which it denoted. The name would lead
us to infer that, like the paeniila, it enveloped the
entire body ; but it is probable that it was made
of coarser and cheaper material. The fact that
it was early adopted as the distinctive dress of
monks would lead us to this conclusion ; beyond
this there is no reason for supposing that it differed
in outline from the paenula.

Thtplaneta first appears in the fifth century a.d.
Cassianus (De Habitu Monachorum, i 7) men-
tions it as a dress whose price prevents its use as
a monastic habit ; and St Isidore, two centuries
later, expressly forbids members of religious orders
to wear it. The planeta must therefore have
been more costly than the casula^ and, as we find
it mentioned in the sixth century as the dress of

■^ * Paenulis intra urbem frigoris causa lit senes uterentur
permisit, quum id vestimenti genus semper itineranum fuisset
aut pluviae. Matrones tamen intra urbem paenulis uti vetuit,
in itinere permisit.' — Lamprid. in Alex. Sev., cap. xxvii.

T'he Early Development of Vestments. 45

nobles and of senators, it was probably the most
expensive of the three.

The general shape of the garment, as shown in
Roman paintings or effigies, is that of a cloak
enveloping the body, sewn in front, and put on
by being passed over the head, for which a suitable
aperture was provided. And this shape is identical
with the outer vestment which we see in early
representations of clerics. The modification which
was early adopted, that of making the vestment
oval in form, so as to lessen the width over the
shoulders and so to give more freedom to the
arms, was obviously regulated by convenience.

Thus we have seen that the three principal
vestments, as we find them detailed in the earliest
lists and depicted in the earliest monuments, are
identical in shape, disposition, and name with the
Roman civil costume of the second or third
century of the Christian era.

Three additional vestments are found enumerated
in the letters of St Gregory the Great and else-
where which were not worn universally throughout
the church, but were either carefully confined to
the clergy of the city of Rome itself or were in
the gift, so to speak, of the Pope. These are the
pallium^ the mappula^ and the dalmatica.

I. The F allium. — In classical Latin this word
is used either as the equivalent of toga or in the
general sense of the English * robe.' It is also

46

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

used in the earlier ecclesiastical writers of the casula^
or coarse outer garment of monks, as in the passage
from Celestine quoted on p. 26. Yet another use

Fig. 3. — Ecclesiastics from the Mosaics in S Vitale,
Ravenna (Sixth Century).

of the word pallium is found in the expression
pallium linostimum, which denoted a cloth, the use
of which was ordained to deacons by Pope

The 'Early Development of Vestments, 47

Sylvester, as we shall presently see when discussing
the maniple.

The pallimn^ when used by ecclesiastical writers
in its proper and restricted sense, denotes an orna-
ment specially appropriated to archbishops. Its
earliest form is shown in the Ravenna mosaics —
that of a narrow strip of cloth, passed over the
left shoulder, looped loosely round the neck, and
then passed over the left shoulder again, so that
the two ends hang free, one in front, the other
behind. This method of disposition seems to
indicate an identity of origin with the ovarium ;
indeed, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish
between these vestments in early representations.
A desire for symmetry, probably, decided the next
step in its evolution ; this consisted in bringing
the free end to the middle and knotting it into
the lowest point of the loop : this we find
exemplified in monuments of the eighth, ninth,
or tenth century. From this the transition to the
form which became universal in later times was
easy, and the two are found contemporaneously.
The final form — which will be more fully de-
scribed in the third chapter — is that of an oval
loop with a long tail pendent from its ends, so
that when the ornament is in position it presents
the appearance of a capital Y on the front and on
the back.

The early history of this vestment is involved

48 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

in deep obscurity. As already hinted, it is not
improbably a modification of the ovarium ; but
there is no evidence, further than general outward
resemblance, that this is actually the case ; nor is
there any apparent reason for its appropriation to
archbishops. The question must remain open till
further research either reveals the missing links
in the chain of connection, or elicits some more
satisfactory solution of the question.

The idea of Dr Rock, according to which the
pallium is viewed as ' the true and only representa-
tion of the Roman toga,' is most unsatisfactory.
He thinks that the toga, which was folded over
the left shoulder, under the right arm, over the
right shoulder, and again over the left shoulder,
' dwindled down to a mere broad band,' folded
much the same way ; and that this broad band
was the early pallium. The evolution here sup-
posed is, however, most unnatural ; there is not
time for it to have taken place between the in-
stitution of Christianity and the date of the
Ravenna mosaics — much less between the time
when ecclesiastical vestments and their develop-
ment began to receive special attention and the
latter date ; the toga, as we have already seen,
was itself practically obsolete when Christianity
began to make itself felt, and still further removed
from the current fashion of the time at which
archbishops began to require distinguishing in-

The Early Development of Vestments. 49

signia; and, lastly, the connecting links between
the blanket at one end and the narrow strip of
cloth at the other, which Dr Rock adduces and
figures, are too few in number to be convincing,
and quite explicable on other grounds, such as the
unskilfulness of the ancient
artist — a fruitful source of
error in archaeological re-
search.

It is not inconceivable
that the origin of the
honourable -pallium is to be
sought in the honourable
orariuyn, distributed as
' favours ' to the Roman
people ; in which case we
must seek elsewhere for a
prototype to the ecclesias-
tical ovarium, * We should
then fall back on the old
idea, which has by no means
been disproved, that in the
clavi of the tunica alba is to ^'^'- 4.-Effigy of a Roman

Citizen in Caerleon
be found the true original. Museum.

We reproduce here a figure of an efHgy of a
Roman citizen at Caerleon, near Newport, which
certainly seems to warrant this view ; here is to be
seen a tunica, a clavus, and.'a paenula, all very sug-

4

50 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

gestive of the alb, stole, and chasuble of later times.
Duchesne, in his * Origines du culte chretien,'*
regards all the orarium-Y\^t vestments which appear
in contemporary documents as in reality pallia;
the ovarium proper he does not consider to have
been introduced till the tenth century. The
ovarium which appears before this date he regards
as simply a napkin, or sudarium^ designed to
protect the alha. He further states that in the
fourth century the civil law required all officials
to wear some distinctive badge of office ; that the
Eastern Church complied with this law throughout,
assigning the <l)ino(f)opiov, kiriTpayriXiov^ and wpapiov
respectively to bishop, priest, and deacon, while
the Western Church only complied with it to the
extent of assigning a pallium to the bishops. We
confess that this elaborate argument does not appeal
to us any more than the theory which regards
the stole as the orphrey of a degenerated vestment ;
but while professing our own belief in Marriott's
view, stated above (pp. 38-9), we have given these
several theories, leaving it to the reader to make
his own choice.

From the earliest references to the pallium
which we can find, it is clear that it was from the
first regarded as a distinctive vestment to be worn

* Quoted by the Rev O. J. Reichel in his ' English
Liturgical Vestments in the Thirteenth Century ' (London,
Hodges, 1895).

The Early Development of Vestments. 5 1

by archbishops only.* The archbishops of this
early period had not the right, any more than their
mediaeval successors, of assuming the f allium on
their consecration ; it was necessary to apply to
the Pope for a grant of the vestment, which was
only bestowed on the permission of the reigning
sovereign being obtained. The earliest document
unquestionably relating to the bestowal of the
f allium is a letter of Pope Symmachus, bestowing
the pallium on Theodore, Archbishop of Laureacus,
in Pannonia, 514 A.D.f Instances of the royal
assent being considered necessary are found in the
letters of Pope Vigilius, who delayed the grant of
the f allium to Archbishop Auxanius of Aries for
two years, -pending the consent of Childebert I,
King of the Franks ;J and in the letters of Pope
Gregory the Great, who at the request of Childe-
bert II bestowed the pallium on Virgilius, a later
Archbishop of the same province.^

In 866 Pope Nicholas I declared that no arch-
bishop might be enthroned or might consecrate the
Eucharist till he should receive the pallium at the
hands of the Pope.||

* Some exceptions to this rule will be noticed in the next
chapter.

t Symmachi Ep. xii in ' Patrologia,' Ixii 72.

X Vigilii Epp. vi, vii in ' Patrologia,' Ixix 26, 27.

§ Gregorii Ep. v 53 ; * Patrologia,' Ixvii 783.

II ' . . . . sane interim in throno non sedentem et praeter
corpus Christi non consecrantem priusquam pallium a sede

52

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

II. The Mappilii. — We have seen in discussing
the j//'j that Pope Sylvester, in the middle of the
third century, decreed that the deacons of the
city of Rome should substitute dalmaticae for
colobia ; he further charged them to wear a
gallium Unostimum on their hands. It is clear
that this cloth, as its proper name, mappiiki (little
napkin), demonstrates, was designed to serve the
utilitarian purpose of a handkerchief, either to
wipe the Communion vessels or the face of the
minister — probably the latter.* This cloth,
however, must early have become regarded as
a sacred vestment by its wearers, and the ex-
clusive privilecre of the Roman priests to wear
it was jealously guarded. Attempts were made
bv the deacons of the neighbouring churches of
Ravenna to assume the vestment, and St Gregory
found it necessary to interfere, w^hich he did in

Romana percipiar, sicuti Galliarum omnes et Germaniae et
aliarum regionum Archiepiscopi agere comprobantur.' —
Nich. Papae I, Responsa ad consulta Bulgar., cap. Ixxiii,
ad fin. : Labbe, vol. viii, col. 542.

* The notion prevalent nowadays, that the mappula was
exclusively intended to cleanse the sacred vessels, is thus
bluntly negatived by St- Ivo of Chartres : ' Unde in sinistra
manu ponitur quaedam mappula quae saepe fluentem oculorum
pituitam tergat et oculorum lippitridinem removeat,' And
Amalarius of Metz testifies to the same effect : ' Sudarium
ad hoc portamus ut eo detergamus sudorem qui fit ex labore
proprii corporis.'

The Fjarly Dei:elopment :^/>.

m-:

several letters to that somewhat recalcitant prelate,
John, the Bishop of Ravenna. For the sake of
peace, Gregory admitted a compromise whereby
the principal deacons of Ravenna were allowed
to wear the coveted ornament ; but the glamour
of carrying a vestment, however inconvenient,*
which was theoretically confined to the holy city
itself, proved too strong a temptation for the
deacons of other places, while the Romans (whose
exclusive privilege was gone once Ravenna was
admitted to a share in it) took no further steps
to prevent its assumption. As a natural conse-
quence, the use of the vestment spread over the
whole of the Western Church, and by the time
when the period at present engaging our attention
ended, had become universal.

III. The 'Dalmatica. — We have already entered
at length into the history of this word and of the
vestment to which it was applied. It does not
seem to have differed essentially from the alha ;
but it appears that twoj vestments were worn at
Rome, an all?a and a dalmatica, though it is
evident from the Toletan canons and other sources
that at this early period such was not the case
elsewhere. In early pictures the two vestments

* The modifications which the discomfort of this little
vestment necessitated will be described in the next chapter.

t Civil dress presented parallel cases : the Emperor
Augustus wore four tunics in cold weather.

54 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

are rarely represented side by side ; it is probable
that the dalmatica was so long as to conceal the
alba^ just as the dalmatic on mediaeval effigies of
Bishops often hides the tunicle. It seems, how-
ever, to have been shown on the ancient picture of
Gregory the Great, described by Joannes Dia-
conus ; and we find that Gregory granted its use
to Bishop Aregius of Gap and to his Archdeacon
(Ep. ix 107 : Migne, Ixxvii 1033), forwarding
the vestments at the same time as the letter.
Clearly the Pope does not denote the alha by the
word dalmatica^ as we have seen St Isidore of
Seville do, for Aregius would naturally wear an
alba without papal interference. The vestment
in question must, therefore, have been another,
resembling the alb in outline, but only worn either
at Rome or by those on whom the Pope saw fit to
confer it.

The history of the spread of the dalmatica must
have been similar to that of the mappula. By the
time the third period begins we find it established
as an independent vestment, difi^ering from its
parent, the alba, in one important respect, which
will be detailed in the following chapter.

Although not vestments in the strictest sense of
the word, we must not conclude this chapter with-
out a brief notice of the two exclusively episcopal
insignia noticed in the canons of the fourth council
of Toledo, namely, the ring and staff. Rings have

I'he Early Development of Vestments, ^^

been found in the tombs of bishops of the third
century. This, however, proves nothing, as their
use was universal among both Christians and
heathen. Nor can anything definitely ecclesiastical
be tortured out of the many descriptive notices
which have come down to us of the rings in the
possession of individual bishops of the third,
fourth, and fifth centuries. Isidore of Seville
{circa 600) lands us on firmer ground ; he dis-
tinctly says : ' To the bishop at his consecration
is given a staff ... a ring likewise is given him
to signify pontifical honour, or as a seal for secret
things.'"' We need not, perhaps, discuss the
esoteric meaning of the gift as here set forth ; but
the fact clearly remains that by Isidore's time the
gift of a ring and a staff had become an essential
part of the ceremony of episcopal ordination. The
Toletan canon tells us the same thing. Before
that time there is no clear indication of the gift ;
it is not mentioned in ordination services of earlier
date than the sixth century, one of the oldest
references to it being in the sacramentary of
Gregory the Great {circa 590 a.d.) ; and even
this passage is rejected as an interpolation by
Migne.f

* Huic dum consecratur datur baculus .... datur et
annulus propter signum pontificalis honoris vel signaculum
secretorum. — Isidorus de OfF. EccL, lib. ii, cap. v.

t Ad annulum digito imponendam : Accipe annulum fidei,

56 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

The Pastoral Staff, — Isidore says, in the passage
already quoted, that the staff is given * that he
may rule or correct those set under him, or support
the weakness of the weak.'^

It is strange that even the pastoral staff has a
prototype among the insignia of the heathen
priesthood. One of the emblems of the Roman
augurs was a lituus, or crook, resembling almost
exactly the earliest pastoral staves as we find them
shown in the monuments of early Christian art.
It was used inter alia for dividing the sky into
regions for astrological purposes. The pastoral
staff, as represented in early monuments, was
much shorter than the mediaeval crozier ; and it
seems not at all improbable that the pastoral staff
was originally a ' Christianization ' of this pagan
implement.

Other writers have argued in favour of the
pastoral staff being simply an adaptation of the
common walking-sticks, which were certainly used
in churches as a support before the introduction of
seats. It has been pointed out, however, that the
pastoral staff had become a special member of the
insignia of a bishop bef3re the general abolition of
these crutches ; and this, it must be confessed, is

scilicet signaculum quatenus sponsam Dei, videlicet sanctam
ecclesiam, intemerata fide ornatus illibate custodias.

''^ Ut subditam plebem vel regat vel corrigat vel infirmi-
tatem infirmorum sustineat.

The Early Development of Vestments. 57

an argument of considerable force against such a

hypothesis.

' The letter of Celestine to the Bishops of Nar-
bonne and Vienne, part of which we quoted on
pp. 26-7, is probably about the earliest available
reference to the use of the pastoral staff by mem-
bers of the episcopal order. This brings the
history of pastoral staves back to the early part of
the fifth century, and shows that this special orna-
ment was one of the earliest of the external symbols
which the church has prescribed for its officers.

The staff was a rod of wood with a head either
crutched or crooked, usually of one of the precious
metals. The name sug-
gests that the symbolism
of the shepherd had
entered largely into the
ideas connected with it.
It was carried by abbots
and abbesses, by bishops,
and, till about the tenth
century, by the Pope ;
but with the rapid growth
of the temporal sove-
reignty of the Papacy, the
emblem purely associated

with the special idea of spiritual pastorate was
abandoned. In the old pre-scientific days it used
to be stated that the Pope at no time carried

Fig. 5.— Pope Gregory the
Great with Pastoral Staff.

58 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

2L pastoral staff, though he did bear a ferula^ or
straight sceptre — the symbol of rule ;* but this is
at variance with the evidence of contemporary art.

We must not leave the subject of the earliest
form of ecclesiastical vestments without briefly
noticing the ornamentation with which they were
decorated. In the oldest representations of
ecclesiastics which we possess, their vestments were
represented pure white, ornamented with the
clavi ; these were generally black, though St
Isidore refers to purple clavi. But other colours
appear in very early frescoes and mosaics. These,
however, are apparently arbitrary, the result of
the notions of the painter on the subject of the
artistic combination of colours. Nothing analogous
to the * liturgical colours ' of late times is trace-
able in the early or transitional period of the
history of vestments.

Some ornamentation other than the clavi is
found in vestments of late date in the present
period. Leo III, the date of whose Papal rule
lies just on the border-line between the transi-
tional and the mediaeval epoch, presented to the
Church of St Susanna a vestment with four gam-

* Romanus autem Pontifex Pastorali virga non utitur —
Innoc. Ill Papa, De Sacr. Altar. Myst. i 62 (Migne ccxvii,
795). Ideoque summum Pontificem eiusmodi incurvatam
virgam non gererc quia eius potestas nullis locorum limitibus
circumscribitur at ubiquepatet. — De Saussay, Panoplia Cleri-
corum (Paris 1646), p. 102.

The Early Development of Vestments. 5 9

madia — that is, ornaments shaped like crosses
formed by four gammas placed back to back, thus :
-• ^ ; we also hear of calliculae, metal or em-
broidered ornaments, for the alba. A singular
method of ornamentation is exemplified by
numerous frescoes and mosaics, and has been a
fruitful source of perplexity to ecclesiologists.
This consists in the use of letters (sometimes of
monograms or letter-like arbitrary signs) on the
outer hem of the garment. No connection can
be traced between these letters and any circum-
stances known concerning the persons whose vest-
ments they decorate ; and wide differences be-
tween the times and places of individual examples
of the same character preclude their explanation as
the faithful copies of weavers' marks. We can
only say that their use is inexplicable on such
practical or esoteric grounds, and that, therefore,
some simple explanation, such as the arbitrary
selection of a letter as an elementary ornament, is
the only satisfactory means of accounting for their
presence. Even now we daily employ rows of
0-shaped circles, S-shaped curves, etc., as orna-
ments, without the slightest reference to the
sounds which those symbols denote. The tendency
to exalt simple little contrivances into hidden
mysteries is ever with us, especially in ecclesiology,
and it should on all occasions be repressed.

CHAPTER III.

THE FINAL FORM OF VESTMENTS IN THE
WESTERN CHURCH.

HITHERTO, to a great extent, we have
been groping in the dark, guided only
by the dim light yielded by obscure
passages in early writers or by half-defaced frescoes
and shattered sculptures. Much is conjectural,
much uncertain ; and often the shreds of informa-
tion obtained from different sources appear con-
tradictory, requiring patient thought and investi-
gation to unravel the entanglement and reconcile
the inconsistencies.

The progress of Christian literature and art had
been retarded first by persecution, then by war
and tumult. This partly accounts for the com-
parative scantiness of the material extant for a
history of the Christian antiquities of the first
eight centuries. But with the ninth century a
new era began, which lasted unchecked all through

The Final Form of Vestments. 6 1

the Middle Ages. The military genius of Charles
the Great effected a general peace in the year 812;
and under his enthusiastic patronage a true renais-
sance took place in learning and in art. Archi-
tecture and manuscript illumination were carried
to a high degree of perfection, and for the first
time active and systematic researches were made
into the details of the doctrine and ritual of the
church in the preceding centuries.

As a natural consequence of the inquiring spirit
which thus made itself felt, the number of books
and tracts on ecclesiastical matters multiplied
enormously. Among the many branches of study
which were and are open to the inquiry of the
ecclesiologist, few occupied the attention of these
ninth-century writers more than the vestments
worn by the priests when ministering in Divine
service.

It has been reserved for the antiquaries of our
own day to formulate the true principles of scien-
tific archaeology. We smile at the childish fancies
which are gravely put forward in works not more
than fifty years old ; small wonder is it, then, that
we find these early treatises on vestments disap-
pointing. All are firmly impressed with the
Levitical origin of the usage and shape of Chris-
tian vesture ; and the majority are occupied with
vague speculations concerning the symbolic mean-

62 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

ing of the individual items in an ecclesiastical
outfit.

Mr. Marriott assigns a reason for the then
universal belief in the Levitical origin of ecclesi-
astical vestments which is highly ingenious, and
probably correct. I cannot do better than cite his
words on the subject :

' Churchmen who had travelled widely, as then
some did, in East as well as West, could hardly
fail to notice the remarkable fact, that at Con-
stantinople as at Rome, at Canterbury as at Aries,
Vienna or Lyons, one general type of ministering
dress was maintained, varying only in some minor
details ; and that this dress everywhere presented
a most marked contrast to what was in their time
the prevailing dress of the laity. And as all
knowledge of classical antiquity had for three
centuries or more been well-nigh extinct in the
church, it was not less natural that they should
have sought a solution of the phenomenon thus
presented to them in a theory of Levitical origin,
which from that time forward was generally
accepted.'"'

Rabanus Maurus, as we have already stated

{supra^ p. 12), was the first who endeavoured to

draw the parallel between the Christian and the

Jewish vestments. The older writers saw the

* Vest. Christ., p. Ixxviii.

'The Fifial Form of Vestments. 63

difficulties in the way of establishing a 'complete
correspondence. Thus Walfrid Strabo {circa 840),
in chapter xxiv of his ' De Rebus Ecclesiasticis/
merely says : * Numero autem suo antiquis respon-
dent ' (In their number they correspond to the
ancient vestments) ; and he further admits that
mass was formerly celebrated by a priest robed in
everyday dress.* But, as the desire to prove the
correspondence grew more widespread, changes and
additions were rapidly made in the vestments
themselves, with a view to assimilating the two
systems. In the interval betv/een the ninth and
eleventh centuries the number of recognised vest-
ments was doubled by the accretions thus made
to the original set.

As the simplest and most intelligible method of
exhibiting the extent of these changes, I have
drawn up the subjoined table, in which are given
the lists of vestments known to writers on ecclesi-
astical matters during this interval of time. These
lists are placed in parallel columns, and a uniform
system of nomenclature has been adopted, so that
the reader can see at a glance the date of the
various additions :

* Vestes etiam sacerdotales per incrementa ad eum qui
nunc habetur auctae sunt ornatum. Nam primis temporibus
communi indumento vestiti missas agebant, sicut et hactenus
quidam Orientalium facere perhibentur. — Walafrid Strabo
De Reb. Eccl., cap. xxlv (Migne cxiv 952).

64

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

Rabanus
Maurus,
circa 820.

Pseudo-
Alcuin,
saec. X.

Ivo

of Chartres,

oh. 1 1 15.

Honorius of

Autun,
circa 1130.

Innocent III,
circa 1 200.

Alb

Alb

Alb

Alb

Alb

Girdle

Girdle

Girdle

Girdle

Girdle

Amice

Amice

Amice

Amice

Amice

Stole

Stole

Stole

Stole

Stole

Maniple
Dalmatic

Maniple
Dalmatic

Maniple
Dalmatic

Maniple
Dalmatic

Maniple
Dalmatic

Chasuble

Chasuble

Chasuble

Chasuble

Chasuble

Sandals

Sandals

Sandals

Sandals

Sandals

Pall

Pal

1

...

Pall

Pall

;:;

Stockings

Subcingulum

Rational

Mitre

Stockings
Subcingulum

Mitre

...

...

Gloves

Ring

StafF

Gloves

Ring

StafF

...

...

Tunicle
Orale

From this table it will be seen that the number
of vestments was increased, not so much by the
invention of entirely new ornaments, as in the
exaltation to the rank of separate ' vestments ' of
what had previously been subordinate. The ring
and staff, for instance, were known to the
councillors at Toledo, but they do not appear in
these lists till the twelfth century.

We must now discuss each of these vestments,
noting their shape and the peculiarities which they
presented at different times. It will be convenient
to follow the order of the above table.

The Final Form of Vestments. 65

I. ^rhe Alb. — We have traced the history of this
vestment from its use as a purely secular garment
till the ninth century, and have seen how its pro-
portions, at first ample, were contracted till the
vestment fitted with comparative tightness to the
body, on account of the greater convenience which
the less flowing form of the vestment offered for
active administration in Divine service.

The material of which the alb was made was
usually linen, of more or less fine quality ; but
we often meet with entries in old inventories of
church goods which enumerate albs of other
material. Silk and cloth of gold are very com-
monly mentioned, and velvet is not unknown.
Thus we have

* Albe sunt viginti de serico principales.' — Inv. West-
minster Abbey, 1388.

* 30 albes of old cloth of Baudkyn.' — Inv. Peterborough,

1539-

' One olde aulbe of whyte velvyt.' — Inv. St Martin Dover,

1536.

The proper colour of the alb was white ; but in
England coloured albs were sometimes worn, and
we meet with such vestments in inventories passim.
The following is a selection :

* Red albes for Passion w^eek, 27.
'40 Blue albes of divers sorts.

* 7 Albes called Ferial black.' — Inv. Peterborough, 1539.

* Alba de rubea sindone brudata.' — Inv. Canterbury.

The ornamentation of the alb, in the earlier

5

66 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

years of the third period, sometimes consisted of
round gold plates, just above the lower hem of
the vestment, one on either side. Occasionally
there were rows of small gold plates arranged
round the lower edge. Albs of the first kind
were called albae sigillatae, from the seal-like ap-
pearance of the gold plates. Albs of the second
kind were named albae bullatae. Dr Rock quotes
the following :

* Camisias albas sigillatas holosericas.' — Record of gift of
King -^thelwulf to St Peter's, Rome, in Liber Pontiiic. in
Vita Benedicti III, t. iii, p. i68, ed. Vignolio.

*Alba bona et buUata.' — Peterborough, a.d. 1189.

The more usual ornamentation, however, and
that which became universal in later years, con-
sisted in ornamental patches of embroidery, tech-
nically called apparels^ sewn on to various parts of
the vestment. There were two such rectangular
patches just above the lower hem,"^ one in front,
one behind ; two similar patches, one on the back,
the other on the breast ; two small patches, one on
each cuff; a narrow strip encircling the aperture
for the head, more for use (as a binding to prevent
tearing) than for ornament ; and, in earlier
examples, two narrow strips running down in

* Very often — perhaps more often than not — the lower
hem was ornamented with a narrow edging of embroidery
running all round. In some albs as represented on Conti-
nental monuments there is a considerable distance between
the apparel and the hem.

The Final Form of Vestme?its, 67

front and two behind, like the clavi of the Roman
tunic.

In the earliest representations of albs, as seen on
sculptured monuments, the vestment is left plain;
one of the earliest apparelled albs being on an
effigy to the memory of Bishop Giffard, at
Worcester, 1301. This, however, does not imply
more than that the apparels were originally painted
on, and that the paint has worn off.

Another difference is observable between the
cuff-apparels of early effigies and of those of later
date. In the early albs the cuff-apparel invariably
encircles the whole wrist ; but in later specimens
we find that it has shrunk to a small square patch,
sewn on the part of the sleeve which is toward
the back of the hand.

Dr Rock has shown some reason for believing
that the apparels were occasionally hung loose
over their proper place ; the lower hem apparels
being suspended from the girdle, and those on
the breast and back being fastened together by
two cords, between which the head was passed,
and which consequently, when in position, ran
across the shoulders. This was obviously sug-
gested by convenience ; for the entry in the
accounts of St Peter's, Sandwich —

' for washing of an awbe and an amyce parleying to the
vestments of the garters and flour de lice and for sewing on
of the parelles of the same, v^ '

68 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

— tells us what we should have expected, that
the apparels had to be removed from the vest-
ment when it was washed, and sewn on again
afterwards. It was only natural that some such
plan as the loose suspension of the apparels should
be followed ; for the constant ripping off and
sewing on of the embroidery must have been not
only laborious, but ultimately detrimental to the
vestment.

This entry gives us an instance of another fact,
that vestments and suits of vestments were named
after the pattern which was embroidered upon
their apparels. A singular collection occurs in the
Peterborough inventory, including

'6 albes with Peter keys.

* 6 albes called the Kydds.

* 7 albes called Meltons.
' 6 albes called Doggs.'

Albs were sometimes worn plain, /.^., without
apparel. The Salisbury Missal, for example,
forbids the apparelled alb to be worn on Good
Friday ; and it is not at all impossible that some
of the plain albs, as represented on early monu-
ments, are really intended for unadorned vest-
ments.

Some difference of opinion seems to exist among
the authorities about the mystical signification of
this vestment. Rabanus Maurus holds it to in-
culcate purity of life. Amalarius of Metz, con-
trasting Jerome's description of the tight-fitting

T^he Final Form of Vestments, 69

Jewish tunic with the flowing alb of his own day,
considers that it denotes the liberty of the New
Testament dispensation as contrasted with the
servitude of the Old. Pseudo-Alcuin thinks that
it means perseverance in good deeds, and that
therefore Joseph is described as wearing a tunica
talaris among his brethren. ' For a tunic which
reaches all the way to the ankles is a good work
carried out to the end, for the ankle is the end
of the body.' Ivo of Chartres asserts that it
signifies the mortification and chastisement of the
members. Honorius of Autun agrees more or less
with Rabanus Maurus ; but Innocent III regards
it as symbolical of newness of life, ' because it is
as unlike as possible to the garments of skins
which are made from dead animals, and with
which Adam was clothed after his fall.'

The following dimensions are among those given
by Mrs Dolby as the correct measurements of an
alb for a figure of medium height and ordinary
proportions :

Length behind when made - - - 4 9

Length before - - - - - - 4 5

Depth of shoulder-band - - - - o 8|

Width of same o ^i

Length of sleeve, outside of arm - - z \\

Width of sleeve at wrist folded in two - o 6\

Width of sleeve half-way up - - - o 9^

Length of neck-band - - - - 2 2o

Width of same - - - - - o ij

Opening down front - - - - ^ ^ i>

JO Ecclesiastical Vestments,

II. The Girdle, with which the alb is secured, is
a narrow band, usually of silk, the ends of which
terminate in a tassel.

The colour of the girdle is properly white,
though occasionally it varied with the colour of
the day. Though (as stated) properly of silk, it
is sometimes made of cotton.

Occasionally the girdle was embroidered in
colours. In the Westminster inventory of 1388
we have :

' Zone serice sunt septem diversi operis et diversorum
colorum.*

The following is a selection of the esoteric
meanings ascribed to this vestment : custodia
mentis ; discretio o'mnium virtutum ; virtus con-
tinentiae ; perfecta Christi caritas.

The length of the girdle is stated at about four
yards. The length of the alb, it should be noticed,
was so considerable that it was necessary to draw
it through the girdle and let it hang over above
it. It is therefore extremely rare (if not unknown)
for the girdle to be visible on mediaeval monuments,
for even in those exceptional effigies in which the
whole length of the alb is visible, the latter vest-
ment entirely conceals the girdle by falling over it.

III. The Amice. — This vestment was quite un-
known in the earlier period : it was a mediaeval
invention.

The Final Form of Vestments, j i

The amice was clearly originally intended to
serve as a hood ; and a survival of this use remains
in the ritual of vesting, in which the priest first
places the vestment on his head, with the prayer
' Impone Domine capiti meo galeam salutis ad
expugnandum diabolicos incursus,' before adjusting
it round his neck.

In several dioceses of France the amice was worn
as a hood upon the head from All Saints' Day till
Easter, and something of the same kind may have
been the practice elsewhere ; thus, we find an effigy
of a priest in Towyn, Merionethshire, and another
in Beverley Minster, in which the amice is drawn
over the head hoodwise.

In shape the amice was a rectangle (the dimen-
sions are given as thirty-six inches by twenty-five
inches). At each end strings were sewn, which
were of sufficient length to cross over the breast
and encircle the body. An apparel of embroidered
work ran along one of the long sides ; so that
when the vestment was in position it was turned
down, like a collar, over the other vestments round
the neck, and so far open as to leave the throat of
the wearer exposed. A small cross was marked in
the centre of the upper edge of the vestment.

So much of this vestment was concealed that
there appears to have been little or no scope for
variety of treatment, either in form or material.
The Jatter seems alwavs to have been linen. The

72 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

orphreys (embroidered edges), of course, are sub-
ject to the same unlimited variation of design as
the corresponding ornaments on other vestments ;
but the shape is constant.

The same uniformity is not, however, observ-
able in the symbolism of this vestment. The
variety of meanings is even greater than is the case
with the alb and its girdle. We are told that it
signifies {inter alia) the Holy Incarnation ; the
purity of good works; the subjugation of the
tongue ; the earthy origin and heavenly goal of the
human body ; the necessity of justice and mercy
in addition to temperance and abstention from
evil ; and the endurance of present hardships.

IV. The Stole. — The early history of the stole
has been discussed in the preceding chapter, in
considering the orarium.

Why, or when, the proper name of the vest-
ment became * stole,' or stola^ does not appear.
It is named stola in the later ecclesiastical canons
of our second period ; but it is not clear how
stola^ which in its original significance denoted a
flowing tunic, like the under-garment of the
Roman or the alha of the priests of the second
period, came to signify a narrow strip of orphrey-
work. It is quite certain that it cannot be ex-
plained (as some writers have attempted to do)
as the orphrey of a lost vestment which has sur-
vived while the bulk of it has disappeared ; for

The Final Form of Vestments, 73

the continuity of the stole and the orarium is a
matter of historic certainty, and we have already
shown reason for assigning an entirely different
origin to the latter vestment. Such an evolution,
too, as that of a narrow strip from a large vest-
ment is not natural, and is contrary to our ob-
servation in the history of other vestments ; and it
assumes the existence of embroidered ' orphreys '
at a time far too remote for such ornamentation

Fig. 6.— Stole-ends, showing Varieties in Form and Orna-
ment.

to be found. This hypothesis has suggested one
of the less probable etymologies which have been
proposed for the word orarium.

The stole is a narrow strip of embroidered
work, nine or ten feet long and two or three inches
wide. In its original form it was of the same width
throughout ; but about the thirteenth or four-
teenth century we find its ends terminating in a
rectangular compartment, giving each the appear-
ance of a tau cross. This was in order to secure
extra room for the cross with which every stole

74 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

was supposed to be marked at the end. For the
same purpose the modern stole expands gradually
from the middle point, where also a cross is
embroidered.

Priests wear the stole between the alb and
chasuble, crossed over the breast, and secured in
that position by the girdle of the alb — nowadays
only when officiating at mass, formerly on all
occasions on which the stole was worn. Deacons
generally secure it over the left shoulder and under
the right arm, thereby approximating the disposi-
tion of the vestment to that of the ancient Roman
ornament from which the vestment takes its origin.
Bishops wear the stole between the alb and tunicle"^'^
pendent perpendicularly on either side of the
breast ; the pectoral cross which they wear is
supposed to supply the place of the crossed
stole.

The embroidery and material of the stole were
supposed to tally with that of the alb, with which
it was worn. The same rule applies to the
maniple, and we commonly find in inventories
that the three vestments are catalogued together.
But if we can trust the evidence of brasses and
other monuments, the vestments of different suits
were worn together in a very haphazard manner,

* The late brass of Bishop Goodrich, in Ely Cathedral,
represents the stole between the tunicle and dalmatic. This
is exceptional, and probably an engraver's error.

The Final Form of Vestments, 75

and it does not seem possible to extract any defi-
nite rule as to the collocation of different vest-
ments embroidered with different patterns of

orphreys.

The ends of the stole— below the embroidered
cross when such existed— terminated in a fringe ;
and it was not uncommon in earlier years for
little bells to be included in this fringe. Thus we

have :

' Una stola cum frixio Anglicano cum pedis albis et endicis
etcampanellis.'-Inv. Vest. Papae Bonif. VIII, cit. ap. Rock,
' Church of our Fathers.'

The stole is said to signify ' the easy yoke of
Christ.' Authorities earlier than the twelfth
century are agreed on this point, though they
differ on some minor details in the subordinate
symbolism of its length, disposition, etc. But
Honorius of Autun asserts that it signifies 'in-
nocence,' and makes some vague and, to the
present writer, unintelligible allusions to Esau's
sale of his birthright ; while Innocent III, with a
faint reminiscence of the earlier exegesis, declares
it to signify the servitude which Christ under-
went for the salvation of mankind— referring to

Phil, ii 5-8.

V. The Maniple.— Tht history of the develop-
ment of the maniple follows closely on that of the
stole. With a very few exceptions, the maniple, as
represented on mediaeval monuments, differs from

76

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

IS

associated, in size

the stole, with which it
alone.*

The maniple was originally worn over the
fingers of the left hand. This arrangement was
most inconvenient, as it was constantly liable to
slip off, and the fingers had to be held in a con-

FiG. 7.— Archbishop Stigand. (From the Bayeux tapestry, showing
maniple carried over fingers.)

strained attitude throughout the service. It was
early found more com^fortable and convenient to
place the vestment over the left wrist ; but no

* One of these exceptions is presented by a small brass
of a priest (Thomas Westeley, 1535) at Wyvenhoc, near
Colchester.

•The Final Form of Vestments. J J

definite rule seems to have been formulated, and,
indeed, in some parts of France the earlier custom
seems to have survived till the middle of the
eighteenth century. When placed on the wnst it
was either buttoned or sewn so as to form a per-
manent loop, so that it should not slip off the

arm

In a few effigies the maniple is represented on
the right wrist. For this there is no hturgical
authority, and it can only be attributed to the
blundering of the engraver or sculptor.*

In reference to its original utilitarian purpose,
Amalarius assigns to the maniple the significance
of the ' purification of the mind.' Pseudo-Alcmn
holds it to denote this present life (in qua super-
fluos humores patimur). It is also said to denote
penitence, caution, and the prize in the racecourse.
The width of the maniple is the same as that of
the stole— the length is given at from three feet
to three feet eight inches.

- There is a remarkable statuette of alabaster in the
Cambridge Museum of Archaeology, which originally formed
part of I retable in Whittlesford Church, Cambridgeshire.
In this figure, which is clad in Eucharistic vestments, the
maniple is absent, and its place seems to be supplied by a
chain suspended over the right wrist. This may, however,
represent some such saint as St Leonard, whose emblem is a
chain and manacles : in which case it is just possible that
the sculptor omitted the maniple to avoid the inartistic sym-
metry which would result from its insertion.

78

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

VI. The Dalmatic. — I am unable to find any
representation of this vestment older than the
ninth century, showing the special features which
distinguished it from the other vestments of the
mediaeval period. Before that date the dalmatic

it v!^

-'i'- ^t".

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HI- V* '^

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ITTT^

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91 nSW^ V 1 '-

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i

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If #1

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Fig. 8.— Deacon in Epis-
copal Dalmatic. (From
Rand worth Church.)

Fig. 9.

■Deacon in Diagonal Dal-
matic.

seems to have been identical with the all?a, pos-
sibly distinguished from it by being a little shorter
when, as at Rome, the two vestments were worn
together.

In the mediaeval period, however, this vestment
(and its modification, the tunicle) is marked out

The Final Form of Vestments, 79

from all others by being slit up a short distance
on either side. These side-slits were decorated
with fringes ; but here an important theoretical
distinction must be observed between the dalmatic
of a bishop and that of a deacon. This was often
neglected in mediaeval times, and is consequently
frequently overlooked by ecclesiologists of the
present day. In the dalmatic, as worn by a
bishop, the side-slits, the lower hems, and the
ends of the sleeves were fringed ; in the dalmatic
of a deacon there were also fringes, hut only on the
left sleeve and along the left slit.

The true reason for this distinction is probably
to be sought in the same direction as that which
prompted the peculiar diaconal method of wearing
the ovarium — convenience. The deacon, who was
practically the servitor at the altar, required to
have his right side free and unhampered as much
as possible ; the heavy fringes, which might have
impeded him, were therefore dispensed with upon
that side. But such an explanation would by no
means satisfy the early mediaeval writers on vest-
ments, and we are accordingly informed that as
the left side typifies this present life and the right
that which is to come, so the fringes on the left
indicate those cares through which we must pass
in this world, while their absence on the right
symbolizes our freedom from care in the world to
come. Why the bishop was not regarded as

8o Ecclesiastical Vestments.

exempt from care in the future world does not
appear.

Another singular piece of blundering meets us
at St David's Cathedral. Here we have two
effigies representing clerics, who, though they
wear the dalmatic, yet show the stole disposed
symmetrically, in the manner of priests.* Either
the presence of the dalmatic or the presbyteral
stole must be incorrect ; but in our ignorance of
the identity of the persons whom these effigies
commemorate we cannot decide which. Bloxam's
idea, that these figures represent archdeacons,
though ingenious, is untenable ; for there is no
authority for assigning the dalmatic to an arch-
deacon of priestly grade ; and we have other
figures of priests known to have been archdeacons
in various parts of England, none of which show
the dalmatic.

The ornamentation of the dalmatic before the
twelfth century consisted either of vertical bands
(like the clavi) or else of horizontal bands, of
orphrey-work. After that date the plain white
vestment was superseded by one covered all over
with elaborate embroidery. This is especially the
case with the episcopal dalmatic, which is only
what we should have expected.

We have already stated one symbolical meaning

* This description is given on the authority of Bloxam,
companion volume, p. 64.

The Final Form of Vestments, 8 1

attaching to the dalmatic and its appurtenances.
A few more may be of interest : the Passion of
Christ ; the * pure religion and undefiled,' as
described by St James ; the Old and New Testa-
ments ; the crucifixion of the world in the wearer ;
the wide mercy of Christ, etc.

All of the early writers are misled by the decree
of Pope Sylvester into imagining that Sylvester
first instituted this garment as a purely ecclesi-
astical vestment ; some even go the length of
assigning a mystical meaning to the colohium,
which it superseded. Even Walafrid Strabo, who
in many respects is the least mystical of the early
mediaeval writers on ecclesiastical vestments, is
deceived, though he wisely contents himself with
stating the fact that Sylvester had so commanded,
without attempting to assign any reason for his so
doing.

VII. The Chasuble. — The variety of materials
of w^hich the chasuble was made may be gathered
from the following extracts from the Lincoln
Inventory of 1536 :

' Imprimis a Chesable of rede cloth of gold w* orfreys
before and behind sett w' perles blew white and rede w^
plaits of gold enamelled.'

* Item a Chesuble of Rede veivett w' kateryn wheils of
gold.'

* Item a chesuble of Rede sylk browdered w' falcons &
leopardes of gold.'

6

82 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

* Item a chesable of whyte damaske browdered w' flowres
of gold.'

' Item a chesable of whyte tartaron browdered w* trey-
foyles of gold.'

* Item a chesable of purpur satten lynyd w' blew bukerham
havyng dyverse scripturs.'

' Item a chesable of cloth of tyshew w' orfreys of nedyll
wark.'

' Item a chesable of sundon browdered w^ mones k sterres
lyned w' blew bukerham.'

Of the materials here mentioned the commonest
were velvet, silk, or cloth of gold.

In the latest days of the transitional and the
earliest days of the mediaeval period, there were
two kinds of chasubles in use, the eucharistic and
the processional. The distinction between them
was utilitarian rather than ritualistic ; it consisted
in a hood sewn to the back of the latter, and
designed as a covering for the head during out-
door processions in inclement weather. But the
processional chasuble early gave place to the cope ;
and a hooded chasuble does not appear to be
extant in representations of date later than the
tenth century.

The manner in which the early chasubles were
made seems to have been as follows : A semi-
circular piece of the cloth of which the vestment
was to consist was taken, and a notch cut at the
centre, so that the shape of the cloth resembled
that of the figure in the annexed diagram ; the

The Final Form of Vestments, 83

two straight edges corresponding to the lines AB
and CD were then brought together and sewn ;
the result was a vestment somewhat of extinguisher
shape, with a hole in the middle for the neck, and
enveloping the body all round to an equal depth
each way. The result was that when the priest
had to raise his hands the vestment was gathered
inconveniently on either shoulder, and probably
injured by being crushed, certainly hampering the
wearer by its weight. This difficulty was sur-
mounted by a very simple expedient. The cloth,
instead of being shaped as before, was cut into an
oval form, and an opening was made at the centre for
the wearer's head, the consequence being that when
in position the vestment hung down over the front
and back to some distance, and covered the upper
part of the arms, though not sufficiently so to
interfere with their free action. The latter shape
is that which meets us all through the mediaeval
period throughout the Western Church.

84

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

The modern Roman Church has made yet
another innovation which, although it has its dis-
advantages, certainly reduces the inconvenience of
the vestment to a minimum.
Two fairly large semicircular
pieces are cut from each side
of the front of the vestment,
thereby permitting the hands
to be brought together when
necessary without crushing the
vestment between the forearms,
which was inevitable in the old
form. But the wasp-waisted
appearance of this chasuble is
ugly, and attempts are being
made to abolish it and to
return to the mediaeval pattern.
Yet another small distinc-
tion is to be found in the shape
of individual examples of the
mediaeval period. We find

many of these vestments to be
Fio. 10. — Sir Peter , n- • i

Legh, Knight and made Circular or elliptical, so

Priest. (From his , , , i j • 11

brass at Winwick. that the lower Dorderis rouiided

Vested in chasuble ^^ . ^j^-j^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^

found to be made in the shape
known as the vesica piscis^ so that the lower
extremities terminate in a point more or less
sharp. Writers who cannot be content with

The Final Form of Vestments. 85

simple or commonplace explanations of ^ such
phenomena as this have laboured in vain to
invent some esoteric signification which will
account for it. Perhaps the most common-sense
guess is that made by Dr Rock, who thinks that
the rounded chasuble was used during the period
of rounded architecture— the Saxon and Norman
—and the pointed chasuble during the pointed
periods of architecture : a suggestion which we
should have no difficulty in accepting at once,
were it not for the fact that scores of brasses and
other monuments of the Curvilinear and Recti-
linear periods in architecture exist showing
rounded chasubles; while (among others) the
effigy of Bishop John de Tour, at Bathampton
near Bath, a.d. i 123, shows a pointed vestment.
We have no space to enter into particulars of the
other suggestions— the symbolism of the vesica
piscis, the perfection of the circle, etc.

The simple explanation seems to be that the
difference depended merely on the taste and fancy
of the seamstress or of the engraver of the monu-
ment. It would be perfectly possible to draw up
a list of monuments in which the point of the
chasuble shows every stage from extreme sharpness
to extreme bluntness, and so, by one step further,
into a continuous curve. I'his demonstrates that
no rule was necessarily followed in choosing the
shape of the chasuble, beyond that of making a

86 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

fairly symmetrical vestment which should hang
down in front and behind, and should have a hole
in the middle through which the priest's head
should be passed. Nor can we even say that fashion
affected the shape of the vestment ; for were such
a list as I have mentioned to be printed here, it
would be seen to consist of the most haphazard
and random series of dates and names of places
thrown together without the slightest regard to
chronological sequence or geographical position.

The dimensions of a pointed chasuble (circa
fourteenth century) at Aix-la-Chapelle, which has
been accepted as a standard for modern imitation,
are given as follows :

ft. in.
Depth of shoulder, measuring from neck - 2 9

Length of side, from shoulder to point - 411

Depth from neck to point in front - - 4 6

„ „ „ behind - - 4 ic

The chasuble of St Thomas of Canterbury, at
Sens Cathedral, which is of the old extinguisher
shape, is three feet ten inches in depth. In the
oldest chasubles the length of the vestment behind
was greater — often much greater — than in front.
There is a more even balance between back and
front in later mediaeval times.

Passing now from the manner of making the
chasuble to the manner of ornamenting it, we find
just the same divergence, with apparently just as

The Final Form of Vestments, 87

little rule. It is probable that, as the decoration
was the most costly part of the manufacture of a
chasuble, the amount of it was regulated by the
resources available to pay for it.

We propose to consider at the end of the next
chapter the classes of patterns with which vest-
ments generally were decorated in the middle
ages ; at present, therefore, we shall confine our-
selves to noticing briefly the positions in which
these decorations were placed on the chasuble.

The groundwork of the vestment was either
plain (invariably so in the older examples) or else
embroidered or woven with a pattern, according
to taste and means; the ornamentation proper con-
sisted of strips of embroidered or ' orphrey ' work,
as it is technically called, sewn on to the vestment.
These strips were sewn either on the edge or cross-
wise on the front and back of the chasuble.

The edge orphrey is the more frequently met
with in the brasses of parish priests, "and it is rarely
so elaborately decorated as are the central orphreys.
It usually consisted of some simple pattern of
flowers or geometrical figures recurring at regular
intervals round the edge.

Greater variety is seen in the shape of the
central orphrey, which, being the more elaborate
and expensive, is almost invariably found repre-
sented in the monuments of bishops, abbots, and
other dignitaries, and in the efligies of priests of

88 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

the richer churches. It sometimes, though rarely,
consisted of a simple * pillar ' on front and on
the back of the vestment ; usually this ornamenta-
tion was extended by the addition of branches of
orphrey work given off on either side, which
passed over the shoulder and joined the corre-
sponding branches of the other pillar, the result
being that the orphrey on front and back had the
appearance of the Greek S', or of a Latin cross
with oblique arms. When the bands were so dis-
posed, the pillar on the front was called the
pectoral, the pillar on the back the dorsal, and
the auxiliary bands, which passed over the
shoulders, the humeral orphreys. Very frequently
this design was varied by omitting the part of the
pectoral and dorsal bands above their intersection
with the humeral ; this resulted in the * Y cross,'
which we find in so many effigies in our cathedrals
and churches. In a few examples the Y or M' is
inverted, and in some it gives off auxiliary
branches, so as to resemble {e.g,') the figure >|<.
It would, however, be waste of time and space to
enter further into a discussion of what was not
regulated by any definite rule, but depended on
caprice, or, at most, on pecuniary considerations.
More often than not the central orphrey, of
whatever form, is combined with the edge orphrey,
and is usually of a different pattern from it.

In many early chasubles the front and back are

'The Final Form of Vestments, 89

charged with an embroidered Latin cross. This is
also the case with the back of the modern Roman
or slit vestment.

When the Y orphrey was placed on the
chasuble, the space between it and the neck on
the back was usually filled with an elaborate floral
design embroidered in gold or crimson. Some-
times (not always) this extended round the neck,
and was repeated in front. To this ornament the
special name of ' flower ' has been attached.

The chasuble surmounts and safeguards all the
other vestments ; hence the chasuble signifies
love, which surmounts all the other virtues, and
safeguards and illumines their beauty with its
protection ; so says Rabanus Maurus, prettily
enough. Amalarius disagrees ; he holds that as
the chasuble is common to all clerics, so it ought
to set forth the works which are common to all :
fasting, thirsting, watching, poverty, reading,
singing, praying, and the rest. The pseudo-
Alcuin and Ivo of Chartres agree with Rabanus,
though for difi^erent reasons. Innocent III, how-
ever, holds it to signify the virtue of apostolical
succession : ' For this is the vestment of Aaron, to
the skirt of which the oil ran down ; but it ran
down from his head to his beard and from his
beard to the skirt. Forasmuch as we all receive
of His spirit, first the Apostles, afterwards the
rest.' Further, he goes on to say that because the

go Ecclesiastical Vestments.

stretching out of the hands divides the chasuble
into two complete and similar parts, so that vest-
ment typifies the old and new church before and
after the time of Christ.

VIII. The Sandals, — The sandals of the Roman
citizens are well known — mere soles, secured
across the instep by one or more thongs of leather,
and clearly designed to protect the wearer from
stony roads without unnecessarily cramping or
confining his feet — an important consideration in
a hot climate.

Such a sandal must have been worn by the early
clergy as Roman citizens, and probably long con-
tinued in use among the lower orders of clerics.
It w^as, and still is, the only foot-covering of
certain monastic orders, and in some cases was
retained even by monks who had attained to epis-
copal rank. In St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny,
which contains a unique collection of mediaeval
efRgies and incised slabs, superior in merit to many
better-known specimens of mediaeval art, there
exists a most interesting effigy of a former bishop,
de Ledrede, who died ci'rca 1350. He is repre-
sented fully vested in Eucharistic dress ; but in
place of the episcopal sandals, which an ordinary
bishop would have worn, he wears the simpler
monastic sandal, which covers only the sole and
instep ; and shows the cord of St Francis hanging
below his alb.

The Final Form of Vestments. 9 1

The extension of the Church into more northern
and colder regions, and the importation of foreign
customs into the southern metropolis itself, pro-
bably suggested the transformation of the some-
what scanty sandal into a more appropriate and
more comfortable shoe. The traditions of the
old custom were, however, long maintained in a
curious way : the upper leathers of the shoe were
fenestrated or cut into open-work patterns, the
result being that the bare surface of the foot
showed through and displayed the decoration in
light flesh-tint against the dark leather of the shoe.
When the episcopal stocking was added to the
equipment of the bishop, the colour became bright
scarlet, though the efl^ect remained much the same.

The fenestrated sandals were abandoned about
the fourteenth century in favour of shoes, in shape
very much resembling the modern ankle-shoe. It
would have been inconsistent, however, with the
spirit of the fourteenth century to have abandoned
the decorative effect produced by the open-work,
and neglected to find some substitute. This sub-
stitute was found in lavish embroidery and in
ornamentation with jewels and spangles of gold.
The sandals, in fact, became as elaborate as did
the rest of the ecclesiastical vestments.

The sandals, as above described, were worn by
bishops only, at the Eucharistic service. Deacons
and priests appear to have worn simple everyday

92 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

shoes, without ornamentation of any kind. The
fenestrated shoes (which were popular among the
dandies of the day as well as consecrated to
the bishops) were expressly forbidden to them, as
also were coloured shoes, or shoes of the prepos-
terous shapes occasionally in vogue among the
laity of the middle ages.

' As the sandals partly cover the feet and leave
them partly bare,' says Rabanus, ' so the teachers

Fig. II. — Bishop Waynflete's Episcopal Sandal.

of the Gospel should reveal part of the Gospel
and should hide the rest, that the faithflil and
pious may have enough knowledge thereof, and
the infidel and despiser may find no matter for
blasphemy. And this kind of shoe warns us like-
wise that we should have a care to our flesh and
our bodies in matters of necessity, not in matters
of lust.'

Amalarius of Metz enters into further details,
incidentally touching on some points of difference
which obtained between the sandal of the bishop

The Final Form of Vestments, 93

and that of the priest in his day — the first half of
the ninth century. The following is a translation
of his words :

* The difference in the sandal sets forth a differ-
ence in the minister. The ofBces of the priest and
of the bishop are almost identical ; but because
there is a distinction in their titles and honours
there is a distinction in their sandals, that we may
not fall into error upon beholding them, which we
might well do, owing to the similarity of their
offices. The bishop has a band (ligaturd) in his
sandals, which the presbyter has not. It is the
duty of the bishop to travel throughout the length
and breadth of his diocese {^parochid) to govern
the inhabitants ; and lest they should fall from his
feet, his sandals are bound. The moral of this is,
that he who mingles with the vulgar crowd must
secure fast the courses of his mind {gressus mentis).
The priest, who remains in one spot and offers the
sacrifice there, walks more securely. The deacon,
because his office is different from that of the
bishop, needs not different sandals ; he therefore
wears them bound, because it is his to go on
attendance. The subdeacon, because he assists
the deacon, and has almost the same office, must
have different sandals, that he be not thought a
deacon. The inner meaning is this : Because the
sandals set forth the way of the preacher, the sole,
which is underneath, warns the preacher not to

94

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

mingle with earthly matters. The tongue of
white leather, which is under the " tread "* of the
foot, shows that there ought to be the same
separation, guiltless and guileless ; that it may be
said of him, " Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom
there is no guile ;" let him not be such as were
the false apostles, who preached in malice and
disputation. The tongue, which rises thence, and
is separated from the leather of the sandals, sets
forth the tongue of those who ought to bear good
testimony to the preacher, of whom Paul said,
" He must have a good report of them that are
without." These are in the lower rank, and to
some extent are separated from spiritual inter-
course. The upper tongue is the tongue of the
spirits {spiritalium), who lead the preacher into
the work of preaching. These search into the
past life of the preacher. But the sandals are
bound round within with white leather ; so must
the desire of the preacher be pure before God, out
of a clean conscience ; and without appears the
black, since the life of the preacher seems despised
by them that are worldly on account of the myriad
afflictions of this present life. The upper part ot
the sandal, through which the foot enters, is sewn
together with many threads, that the two leather
bands be not separated ; for at first the preacher
should apply himself to the many virtues and
* So Mariott. The original word is calcaneum.

The Final Form of Vestments. 95

sayings of the Scriptures, that his outward acts
may not be at variance with those which are secret
and known to God only. The tongue of the
sandals, which is over the foot, sets forth the
tongue of the preacher. The line made by the
craft of the shoemaker, stretching from the tongue
of the sandal to its end, sets forth the perfection of
the Gospel ; the lines proceeding from either side,
the law and the prophets, which are repeated in
the Gospels ; they are repeated at the middle line,
which stretches to the end. The bands denote the
mystery of Christ's Incarnation . . . .'

We have given this strange mixture of mysti-
cism and observation at length for several reasons.
First, it emphasizes a curious distinction between
the shoes of different orders of clergy which is not
often brought into notice. Secondly, it gives a
very full, though somewhat obscure, description of
the sandal in the author's time. And thirdly, it
exemplifies the absurd lengths to which an author
can go who endeavours to extract hidden meanings
from simple and easily explicable facts. Here
Amalarius endeavours to extract solemn truths even
from the seams which the maker found necessary
in joining two pieces of leather together. If some
modern writers on archaeological subjects took
timely warning from such a melancholy example,
we should have fewer wild theories and more facts.
It is sad that most of Amalarius' successors

96 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

quietly put aside his elaborately argued piece of
symbolism. Pseudo-Alcuin is content with the old
idea of Rabanus, that the Gospel should be kept
from what is earthy as the feet are kept from the
ground, but not otherwise covered. Ivo practi-
cally quotes Rabanus word for word ; and even
Innocent III, who is usually original, has little
further to offer beside the quotation : * How
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace !'

IX. The Pall. — The pall is a symbol of juris-
diction, which is worn by the Pope, and by him
bestowed upon all archbishops.

The material of which the pall is made is white
wool. Both the shape of the vestment and its
ornamentation have undergone modifications since
it was invented, even during the mediaeval period
itself Its earliest appearance, and all that is
known of its origin, is described in the preceding
chapter. The folding of the pallium must have
given a little trouble whenever it was put on ; and
this must before long have suggested the shape
which meets us in the mediaeval pall : that of a
loop of cloth with two tails projecting from oppo-
site points in its circumference. A slight differ-
ence is observable between palls represented early
and those represented late in the mediaeval period.
In the former the branches are almost horizontal,
passing round the arms between the shoulder and

The Final Form of Vestments, 97

elbow ; in the latter they pass over the shoulder.
In the former case the pall resembles a T, in the

Fig. 12.— St Dunstan. (From a manuscript in the Cottonian
Library ; showing early forms of pall and mitre.)

latter a Y, whether seen from before or behind the
wearer.

In whichever form it appears, however, the pall
was secured in its place by pins. At first, when
the vestments were of simple description, these
pins could be run through pall and chasuble with-

7

98 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

out doing much damage; afterwards, however,
when enrichments were heaped upon the chasuble,
these pins were not run into that vestment at all,
but through loops provided for the purpose. It
was discovered, however, that the pall in its latest
development would stay in its place quite as well
without pins as with them, and the loops were
therefore abandoned. As the pins were generally
made of gold, with heads of precious stones, some
reluctance was felt at abandoning them altogether,
and accordingly they sank into the position which
the maniple and other vestments assumed — that of
being ornaments.

The length of the pendent tails shows con-
siderable variety at different times. They are
extremely long — often extravagantly so — in monu-
ments dating between the eleventh and fourteenth
centuries. After that date they were curtailed,
and at present are not more than a foot long.
There is a little button of lead sewn into the ends
of the tails to make them hang properly.

The pall never displayed that tendency to
elaborate adornment which distinguished the other
vestments of the mediaeval age. Doubtless the
fact that all palls were made at Rome, and but few
were made at a time, prevented any great change
in fashion. Some differences are, notwithstanding,
noticeable. In the earliest representations of
tailed palls there is to be seen a single cross at the

The Final Form of Vestments. 99

end of each tail ; the same cross is to be seen
worked on early oraria and mappulae. But in
mediaeval and modern times there is a difference.
At present the pall has six crosses, one on each
tail and four on the oval, worked in black. In
the middle ages we find sometimes four, sometimes
as many as eight, worked in purple.

The history of each individual pall is curious.
On the morning of St Agnes's Day (January 21)
in each year, two lambs are sent into Rome each in
a basket, the baskets being slung over a horse's back.
These lambs are chosen with special reference to
whiteness and goodness. The horse is driven to
the palace of the Pope, who comes to a window
and makes the sign of the cross over the lambs,
which are then conducted to the church of St
Agnes without the walls. Here, gaily adorned
with flowers and ribbons, they are brought up to
the altar, and kept there till mass is sung. After
mass (formerly at the Agnus Dei) the celebrant
blesses the lambs, which are then handed over to
the charge of the canons of St John Lateran, by
whom they are sent back to the Pope. The Pope
hands them on to the dean of his subdeacons,
who delivers them up to a nunnery, where they
are kept and fed. When they are shorn, the
wool is woven by the nuns into palls. On the
eve of the day of St Peter and St Paul these
palls are taken to St Peter's, and there blessed

loo Ecclesiastical Vestments.

after evensong, after which they are shut up in a
silver-gilt box to vt^ait till they are wanted for
bestowal on a new archbishop.

Each archbishop on election must go to Rome
in person to receive the pall, unless prevented by
serious obstacles — when the latter is the case it
is solemnly sent to him by the Pope. He is not
permitted to engage in any episcopal duty before
receiving the pall ; afterwards the vestment is
worn only at High Mass on the following days :
Nativity, St Stephen, St John, Circumcision,
Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday,
Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday, Ascension, Pentecost, Feasts of the
Virgin, Nativity of St John the Baptist, all days
of Apostles, All Saints, Dedications of Churches,
principal local feasts in the diocese. Consecrations
of Bishops, Ordinations of Clergy, Feast of the
local Dedication, and the Anniversary of the
wearer's consecration. The Pope, however, wears
the pall at all times when he says mass.

* The pall is the symbol of the archiepiscopal
authority, therefore it may not be worn without
express papal permission outside the limits of the
jurisdiction of the archbishop.*" When he dies,
the pall is buried with him, but it is only placed

* We give a figure of an effigy in Mayence Cathedral to
the memory of Albrecht von Brandenburg, who died in 1545.
This effigy is remarkable, and probably unique, in represent-

T^he Final Form of Vestments. i o i

on his shoulders if he be buried within his own
province, otherwise it is folded and placed beneath
his head.* The pall is the only vestment which
may not be lent by one cleric to another.

ing the archbishop as wearing two
palls. Although this is a con-
venient method of informing the
world of the fact that the person
commemorated held two arch-
bishoprics (Mayence and Magde-
burg), it is, of course, a solecism,
as the pall of the one could
not legally be worn within the
precincts of the other, and z'ice
versa. This monument is espe-
cially valuable, as it clearly dis-
tinguishes between the cross-staff
and the pastoral staff, which are
often confused. See the account
of the pastoral staff later on in
the present chapter.

* It is well known that ecclesi-
astics were buried in their Eucha-
ristic vestments, with a chalice
and paten, the former often filled
with wine. Much nonsense is

talked nowadays of the piety of the mediaeval builders and
undertakers, who put their best work where no human eye
could see it. "Unfortunately for this theory, the chalice and
paten were usually cheap base metal (Canterbury affords one
notable exception), and the vestments were often an inferior
or worn-out set. Economy was considered then, as now.

I02 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

We now come to a singular point in the history
of the pall, and one which has so far baffled
ecclesiologists to explain. Although the pall is
generally regarded as the peculiar emblem of arch-
bishops, and seems to have been kept for their
especial and peculiar use by the rites which we
have described, yet a few favoured bishops have
from very early times been entitled to wear this
vestment. The bishoprics which possess this
privilege are those of Autun, Bamberg, Dol,
Lucca, Ostia, Pavia, and Verona.

The pall is represented on several monuments
of bishops of these dioceses, e.g., the slab of
Bishop Otto (1192) and the brass of Bishop
Lambert (1399), both in Bamberg Cathedral. In
illuminated manuscripts and elsewhere we often
find figures of clerics of episcopal rank wearing the
pall, but holding the crook-headed staff, commonly
supposed to be the insignia of a bishop as distin-
guished from an archbishop ; but as numerous
examples exist to show that the latter notipn (like
the majority of popular ideas in archaeology) is
erroneous, this combination proves nothing.

The peculiar circumstances distinguishing the
pall from the rest of the ecclesiastical vestments
would lead us to expect some remarkable dis-
quisitions on its symbolism. This expectation is
not disappointed. The cross on the back and
front reminds the wearer to reflect piously and in

The Final Form of Vestments. 103

a worthy manner on the Passion of the Redeemer,
and holds up before the people the sign of their
Redemption. Such is the old view, and it has at
least the merit of simplicity and religious feeling.
But, unfortunately, Amalarius, in his dissecting
manner, draws a parallel between the pall and
the golden plate of the Levitical High Priest ;
this clears the way for the extraordinary disquisi-
tion of the pseudo-Alcuin on the Tetragramma-
ton T\'\T\'^ (as he inaccurately writes it), wherein
Jod signifies * principium,' //^ 'iste,' Vau 'vita,'
and Heth ' passio ' — ' id est, iste est principium
passionis vitae.' Honorius thinks, however, that
the four letters typify the four arms of the cross.
Innocent III and others tell us that the pall
signifies that discipline with which archbishops
should rule themselves and those set under them.
As Innocent's account of the pall gives as full
an account as can be obtained of the vestment and
its ornamentation and fastenings, we give an
abstract of it here :

' The pall which the principal bishops wear
signifies the discipline with which archbishops
should rule themselves aud those set under them.
By this the golden chain* is obtained which those
receive who strive lawfully, of which Solomon
saith, '' My son, hear the instruction of thy father
and forsake not the law of thy mother, for they

* A not uncommon comparison for the loop of the pall.

I04 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and
chains about thy neck." For the pallium is made
of white wool, woven, having a circle above con-
straining the shoulders, and two tails [lineae)
hanging down on either side ; moreover, there are
four purple crosses, front and back, on the right
and on the left. On the left side it is double,
and single on the right.'* After a long moraliza-
tion on these facts, he goes on : ' The three pins
which are fixed in the pallium over the breast, on
the shoulder and in the back, denote pity for his
neighbour, the administration of his office, and the
meting out of justice. . . . There is no pin
fastened in the right shoulder,' because there is no
trouble in everlasting rest. ' The needle is golden;
sharp below, rounded above, enclosing a precious
stone,' which bears a variety of meanings. If we
may believe the Elizabethan reformers, the pall
was an expensive item in an archbishop's insignia.
Although Gregory I ordained that it should be
given to the archbishop-elect freely. Jewel speaks
of the Archbishop of Canterbury giving 5,000
florins (^1,125 at 4s. 6d. the florin) to the Pope
for his pall, in addition to the first-fruits of his
province ; and Bullinger speaks of the pall being
so dear that ' in gathering money for it ' the arch-
bishop often ' beggared his whole diocese.'

X. The Stockings, or buskins, seem to have
* A survival of the old method of wearing it.

The Final Form of Vestments. 105

H(

been originally appropriated to the Pope alone,
bishops being content with the somewhat scanty
sandal already described. But by the time of Ivo
of Chartres the caligae had taken their place
among the articles in an episcopal wardrobe,
is the first writer who men-
tions them. In the middle
ages they, like all the other
vestments of which we have
been treating, forsook their
primitive simplicity and be-
came enriched with elaborate
ornamentation. They sig-
nify the need of framing the
courses of their feet aright ;
and in that they reach to
the knees, they indicate that
the wearer should strengthen
the feeble knees weakened

by heedlessness, and hasten flete's Episcopal Stock-
to preach the Gospel.

XI. The Subcingulum. — The discussion of this
vestment will be more difficult than that of any
other among the equipment of the clergy of the
West. It is all but obsolete at the present day ;
there does not seem to be more than one repre-
sentation of it extant, and that only shows a small
portion of it in an unsatisfactory manner ; and the

Fig. 14.— Bishop Wayn"

io6 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

references to it in ecclesiastical writers are few
and far between.

In antiquarian or any other investigations it is
invariably the best rule, when a puzzle is set for
solution, to work backwards from the known to
the unknown. We will follow this course in
speaking of this vestment, and commence with a
description of it as worn at the present day.

The modern suhcingulum is reserved for the
exclusive use of the Pope. It takes the form of a
girdle, passed round the alb, and having on the
left side a maniple-like appendage. This seems
to have been the form which it had in the end of
the fourteenth century, for in an ' Ordo Missae
Pontificalis,' published by Georgi,* we read :
* Primo induit (pontifex) sibi albam, deinde cinc-
torium cum manipulo ad sinistram partem.* In
the century before this Durandus, in his ' Rationale
Divinorum Officiorum,' writes : ' Sane a sinistro
latere pontificis ex cingulo duplex dependet suc-
cinctorium 'f — a doubled ' apron ' hangs on the
left hand side ; and he likens it to a quiver, in the
course of an elaborate comparison between the
episcopal vestments of his time and the spiritual
armour of the Christian.

The succinctorium must have adopted this form

* Liturgia Rom. Pont., vol. iii, p. 556 ; cit, ap. Rock,
Church of Our Fathers,
t Rationale, III 4.

The Final Form of Vestments. 1 07

about the middle of the thirteenth century. At
the beginning of that century we find that it had
its use, and was not a mere ornament. In the
* Ordo Romanus ' of Cencio de Sabellis, written
at the end of the twelfth century,* is a description
of the new Pope's taking possession of the Church
of St John Lateran. He is there described as
being ' girt with a belt of crimson silk, hanging
from which is a purple purse (bursa) containing
twelve precious stones and some musk.' These all
had their symbolical meaning : the belt denoted
purity, the purse almsgiving, the stones the
apostles, the musk ' a good odour in the sight of
God.'

Innocent III, writing at the commencement of
the thirteenth century, describes the vestment as
peculiar to bishops^ but does not refer to it as
peculiar to popes ; neither, be it noticed, does
Cencio. The last restriction may have crept in
one or two centuries after Innocent. He does
not enter into many details concerning it, but he
clearly distinguishes it from the zona^ or girdle,
which denotes continence, as the subcingulum sig-
nifies abstinence.!

About this time a fresco was executed on the

* Printed in Mabillon, Musei Ital., ii, p. 212.

t Were it not for this, we might infer from the other
passages quoted that the succintoriura was simply hung on
the ordinary girdle.

io8

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

wall of the Sagro Speco at Subiaco, which remains
till the present day. It represents a Pope fully
vested, but under the folds of the chasuble on
either side is a fretted orna-
ment which is certainly not
part of any of the ordinary
vestments of any rank of
clergy. There is no alterna-
tive but to regard Dr Rock
as correct in considering this
ornament as part of the sub-
cingulum.

This being granted, the sub-
cingulum is seen to be a girdle,
from either side of which
depends a lozenge - shaped
' lappet.' We shall meet with
a similar lappet in the eniyo-
vaTiov of the Greek Church.
Only portions of these lappets
are to be seen in the fresco
in question, but enough is
apparent to show them to be lozenge-shaped.

The testimony of Cencio points to these lappets
being, not mere ornaments, but bags or purses
hung to the belt ; and this brings us to another
stage in the evolution of this vestment. We
know that through the middle ages a bag called a
gypciere hung at the belts of civilians, and served

Fig. 15. — Figure of a
Pope. {Temp. Inno-
cent III.)

T^he Final Form of Vestments, 109

the double purpose of purse and pocket. It is
but natural to suppose that the early clergy found
such appendages useful even in divine service.
Let us now go yet further, and see whether con-
firmation of these theories awaits us.

Honorius of Autun in 1130 writes: 'The sub-
cingulum, also called perizona or subcinctorium, is
hung doubled about the loins ; this signifies zeal
in almsgiving,' etc.

Note, in this passage, the expression ' hung
doubled.' This can only refer to the ' lappets '
being hung one on each side. And the ' alms-
giving,' which Honorius asserts this vestment to
signify, suggests a purse.

Other writers, in the century preceding Hono-
rius, write to the same effect ; and even as early
as the tenth century, in a manuscript of the mass,
w^e find a distinction drawn between the ' cingu-
lum ' and the ' baltheum ' in the prayers said while
vesting.

In short, it seems probable that the subcingu-
lum, with its appendages, is, like several other
sacerdotal vestments, a modification into an orna-
ment of something which had been designed for
some natural requirement. When the maniple
became too narrow and too richly embroidered to
be of the slightest use as a handkerchief, it cannot
be supposed that the priest did entirely without
some resource ; some plain piece of cloth must surely

1 1 o Ecclesiastical Vestments,

have been employed in its place, and some pocket
must then have been required in which to place it.
Again, some receptacle must have been wanted in
which to place those comforting metal ' apples ' in
which hot water was placed when the day was
cold ; and the thumbstall or ponser, the thimble
designed to keep the oil which adhered to his
thumb after it had been dipped in the chrism,
from greasing any of his vestments. It seems only
natural to suppose that the subcingulum was
originally designed to supply fhese wants.

XII. The Rational. — This ornament, obsolete
now, was assumed by the bishops of the early
years of the middle ages, in direct imitation of the
breastplate of the ephod worn by the Jewish High
Priest.

It consisted of a wooden brooch, overlaid with
enamelled metal, which was fastened high up on
the breast of the chasuble, and seems commonly
to have been worn when there was no central
orphrey on that vestment.

The shape and ornamentation of the rational
varied altogether with the caprice of the artist
who designed it. Examples are extremely rare in
inventories of cathedral goods, if, indeed, they occur
at all. It is probable that they were catalogued
together with the morses of copes, with which
they were practically identical in appearance.

The word * Rationale ' first meets us in the

T^he Final Form of Vestments, 1 1 1

expression 'rationale judicii/ used in the Vulgate
-passim as a translation of the ro \o^{iov rr]q KpiaewQ,
by which the Septuagint expressed the breastplate
of the ephod. In the early Church writers the
word 'judicii' was dropped and 'rationale' used
alone, but always to denote the Jewish ornament.
When pseudo-Alcuin wrote, in the tenth or
eleventh century, the ecclesiastical rational was
quite unknown, for he says : ' Pro rationali summi
pontifices, quos archiepiscopos dicemus, pallio
utuntur' — a statement which he would certainly
not have made if anything less unlike the rational
than the pallium had been known to him. Ivo of
Chartres, too, knows nothing of the Christian
ornament, for although he does not say definitely
that the Jewish rational corresponded to the
pallium, he says that it corresponded to an orna-
ment conceded {concessum) to the chief bishops of
his time — an expression which would define the
pallium, but certainly not the rational. Honorius
of Autun is the writer in whom we first meet with
direct and unequivocal mention of the ornament ;
and he begins his remarks upon it by definitely
stating : ' Rationale a Lege est sumptum '—Lege,
of course, being the Levitical law. This gives us
very closely the limits of date between which the
rational was assumed — some time between iioo
and 1 1 30.

The rational, if we may accept the testimony

112 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

of the monuments, gradually died out about the
fourteenth or fifteenth century. It seems never to
have been universal, and an actual rational is one
of the rarest ecclesiological treasures a collector
can possess.

Xlll. The Mitre. — Like that of the subcingu-
lum, the history of the mitre is a curious piece of
evolution ; but, unlike the suhcingulum^ the mitre
can be traced through all its history in an un-
broken chain of literary references, monumental
effigies, and actual specimens.

The word 7nitra (Gk. /iiVoc, ci thread^ is applied
in the transitional period to a female head-dress,
and even St Isidore of Seville makes use of the
word in that sense. The Septuagint, however,
occasionally translates the expression for the cap
of the high priest by ^aV^a ; at other times they
use the word Ac/Soptc, which they also apply to the
cap of the second order of the Jewish priesthood.
The Vulgate follows the Septuagint, sometimes
using mitra^ sometimes cidaris^ and occasionally
tiara.

The advocates of an origin in primitive anti-
quity for Ecclesiastical Vestments make much of
two passages which are certainly obscure, and
would seem to indicate that in apostolic times
' bishops ' wore a gold -plate upon their heads.
These passages are in a letter sent by Polycrates of
Ephesus to Victor, bishop of Rome, about the

'The Final Form of Vestments, 1 1 3

year 200 a.d., in which he alludes to St John as
'* having become a priest wearing the gold plate '
iyevi]Or] up^vg to 7reTa\ov 7re(j>of)r]fC0JQ ;* and in the
writings of Epiphanius of Salamis (circa 400 a.d.),
in which he says of James, the brother of Our
Lord, that he was a priest after the ancient rite,
and was permitted to wear a gold plate — hparev-
(jai'Ta auTOi' Kara rrjv iraXaitiv Upuxjvvi] evpOjLUv . . .
Ka\ TO TreTaXov eirl rfyg K£(paXr}Q £$^7^ civtm (pEpeiu^'T Cltmg
the authority of Eusebius, Clement, and others.
These statements are so hopelessly vague and
confused that very little can be made out of them,
but it has been pointed out that (i) the passages
in which they occur are largely allegorical, (ii)
that the iriTaXov seems to refer to the gold plate of
Jewish priesthood, and that the expression ' priest
with the iriTaXov ' probably was used currently in
the early years of Christianity, much as ' mitred
abbot ' is by us at the present day. In any case,
as Dr Sinker says,J it ' is plain enough that if St
John and St James, or either of them, did wear
this ornament, it was an ornament ' special to
themselves and ceased with them, affecting in no
sense the further use of the church.'

* Ap. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., v 24. ; Migne, Patrol.
Graec, xx 493.

t Contra Haer., I xxix 4 ; Migne, Patrol. Graec,
xli 396.

X In Smith and Cheetham's 'Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities,' s.v. r/!/tre.

114 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

Other passages, supposed to refer to this or
similar practices, bearing dates between the fourth
and sixth centuries, are found on examination to
have no real bearing on the question. The
number of extracts from writers of that time which
have been brought forward to prove the antiquity
of the mitre is considerable ; but those which can
at all bear consideration apart from their contexts
are all vague, unconvincing and inconclusive ; some,
indeed, are so obviously figurative that their pro-
duction is only an amusing illustration of the
straits to which the believers in the elaboration of
primitive ritual are reduced. And the evidence of
Tertullian on the other side is very clear — ' quis
denique patriarches, quis prophetes, quis levites,
aut sacerdos, aut archon, quis vel postea apostolus
aut evangelizator aut episcopus invenitur coro-
natus.^'*

In the face of this quotation it is not easy to see
what to make of the passages in St Jerome and
elsewhere, in which a bishop is addressed by the
expression * corona vestra,* much as we use the
words * your lordship ' now. Dr Rock argues
from this that bishops, even so early as the fifth
century, wore a circlet or crown of gold at Divine
service. If so, the use must have been confined
to Rome, for otherwise the Toletan or other

* *De Corona Milids,' cap. ix. Migne, ii 88.

The Final Form of Vestments, 1 1 5

councillors would surely have given us definite
information concerning it.

St Isidore of Seville, in his treatise ' De Officiis
Ecclesiasticis,' book ii, chap, vii, describes the
tonsure as indicative of the priesthood and the
regal nature of the church, the shaven part of the
head representing the hemispherical cap of the
Jewish priests, and the circlet of hair representing
the coronet of kings. It is true that he is not
speaking definitely of bishops, but the fact that he
is absolutely silent respecting a crown of any
kind other than the crown of hair — for which he
expressly uses the word corona — is at least pre-
sumptive evidence that the crown of gold was not
worn in his day. The prophecy of King Laog-
haire's druids affords a very curious corroboration
of this; sttpost, p. 128.

The earliest representation that Dr Rock can
adduce of an ecclesiastic wearing this circlet is a
figure in the Benedictional of St Aethelwold, an
MS. of the tenth century at Chatsworth. Here
we have a figure, the brows of which are certainly
encircled with a gold band set with precious
stones. As Marriott points out, however, this is
probably more of a secular than an ecclesiastical
nature, and may indicate the royal rank to which
bishops at that time frequently laid claim.

Menard, after a careful study of ancient
liturgies, came to the conclusion that the mitre

1 1 6 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

was not in use in the church prior to the year
looo. Contemporary art bears out this statement.
Probably the earliest genuine representation of a
bishop wearing a head-dress to which any import-
ance can be attached from a liturgical point of
view is an illumination of St Dunstan* in an MS.
(Claud. A 3) in the British Museum. This
is of the early years of the eleventh century. It
shows us a simple cap, low and hemispherical in
shape, without the least trace of the cleft now in-
variably associated with the episcopal headgear.

The fashion seems to have changed with con-
siderable rapidity, and the cleft very soon began to
make its appearance. Its first beginning was a
very shallow, blunt depression between two low,
blunt, rounded points, one over each ear — in fact,
a depression such as would naturally be made in a
soft cloth cap by passing the outstretched hand
gently across the crown. This change was not
long in giving place to another and more impor-
tant modification. The mitre was turned so
that the horns appeared one in front, one behind,
and they were raised a little higher than before,
and, instead of being rounded, were made of a
triangular form. The mitre in this shape is that
universally represented in MSS. of the twelfth
century.

Little difference in shape is traceable in the
* See fig. 11, p. 97.

The Final Form of Vestments. 1 1 7

mitres of the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth or
sixteenth centuries. During these four hundred
years the mitre increased considerably in size, but

Fig 16 -\ Bishop, Salisbury Fig. 17.-AN Archbishop;

^CATHEDRAL (Jocelyn, Twelfth ^-^^^^^.''^IZ'^ll?

Century). ther von Isenburg, 1482).

it was reserved for the seventeenth century to
stereotype the final modification in form. Hitherto
the two horns of the mitre had as a general rule

1 1 8 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

been in the shape of plain triangles, bent round so
as to adapt themselves to the outline of the head ;
the mitre was thus cylindrical in outline. By the
seventeenth century, however, the triangles had
been made spherical, so that the mitre assumed the
form of a pair of parentheses, or of a barrel, which
it still possesses.* By this time it had grown to a
considerable height — some eighteen inches.

When the mitre was a plain cloth cap it was
kept in position by two ribbons, which were
knotted at the back of the head. The end of
these ribbons are well shown in the figure of St
Dunstan. But the ribbons very early lost their
usefialness and became simple ornaments, and the
ubiquitous embroiderer was not long in seizing on
these infulae, or lappets, and enriching them with
needlework to the best of her ability.

The mitre was originally made of plain white
linen, and until about the twelfth century continued
to be so ; it was occasionally, though by no means
always, elaborately decorated with needlework.
Such simplicity, however, was not consistent with
the spirit of the age which followed, and we find
that in the thirteenth century the mitre was made of
silk, and invariably overlaid either with embroidery

'■'' Traces of a slight * bulge ' are discernible in a few
examples of even so early a date as the fifteenth century. It
is well developed in von Brandenburg's effigy, figured on
p. lOI.

The Final Form of Vestments. 1 1 9

or pearls and other jewels. To such a length was
this enrichment carried at last in England, that
we read that Henry VIII removed from Foun-
tains Abbey, among other treasures, a silver-gilt
mitre set with pearl and stone — weight seventy

ounces !

Although properly belonging to the seventh
chapter, in which the ritual uses of the various
vestments which we have been describing will be
discussed, it is necessary here to detail the three
classes into which mitres are divided. Unlike
other vestments, which are classified accordmg to
the particular liturgical colour which predominates
in their embroidery, mitres are classified accordmg
to the manner in which they are ornamented.
The background, when it can be seen at all, is
white. A mitre which is simply made of white
linen or silk, with little or no enrichment, is called
a mitra simplex ; one ornamented richly with
embroidery, but without precious metals or stones,
is called a mitra aurifrigiata ; and one in which
precious metals and stones are employed in its
decoration is called a mitra pretiosa. The different
times at which these different kinds of mitres are
worn will be noted in their proper place in
Chapter VII.

The papal tiara may be briefly described in this
place. It first appears about the eleventh century
as a conical cap, encircled with a single crown at

Fig. iS. — Pastoral Staff and Mitra
Pretiosa (the Limerick Mitre).

The Final Form of Vestments. 121

the brow ; assumed about the time of the growth
of the earthly power of the papacy, it may well be
regarded as symbolical of spiritual and temporal
rule. The subsequent modifications through
which it passed were few in number, though con-
siderable in character : they consisted in the addi-
tion of a second crown by Boniface VIII (1300
A.D.), of a third by Urban V (1362-70), and the
swelling out of the body of the head-dress into a
bulging form about the sixteenth century, much
about the time when the mitre assumed the same
shape.

XIV. '[he Episcopal Gloves. — These un-
doubtedly owe their invention to the coldness and
cheerlessness of the early churches, and were in-
vented simply to keep the hands of the wearer
warm. But about the ninth century they, with so
many similar vestments, assumed a more sacred
character, anci a prayer was prescribed for putting
them on, as was the case with the other and better
established vestments. They do not appear to be
formally mentioned as vestments till the time of
Honorius of Autun, who draws moral lessons
from them.

Throughout the middle ages the gloves were
richly embroidered and jewelled ; often a large
stone is to be seen on the back of each hand.

The gloves (cldrothecae^ or manicae) must be
carefully distinguished from the manicae or

122 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

brachialia^ the sleeves of coarse cloth which the
bishop used to draw over his arm to protect the
apparels of his alb from the water when administer-
ing baptism by immersion.

As the hands are sometimes covered with gloves
and sometimes bare, so good deeds should be
sometimes hidden to prevent self-sufficiency, and
sometimes revealed as an edifying example to those
near us. So says Honorius of Autun ; perhaps
this is as satisfactory an exegesis as has ever been
given of the gloves or any other vestment.

XV. The E-pis copal %jng. — Although, as we
have seen, the ring was recognised as one of the
special marks of a bishop at the time of the fourth
council of Toledo, and was regarded by St
Isidore of Seville as a special article used in the
investiture of a bishop, none of the liturgical
writers of the earliest years of the mediaeval period
notices it ; not till we come to Honorius of
Autun is any mention of it to be found. The
reason of this is not far to seek, and has been
given by Marriott. Rabanus, Amalarius, Ivo,
and the rest, occupied themselves more or less
with the supposed connexion between the liturgical
and the Jewish vestments, and therefore, as they
were not writing treatises dealing solely with
Christian vestments, they omitted all mention of
ornaments which had no direct bearing on the
questions with which they were engaged. Hence,

'The Final Form of Vestments, 1 2 3

both the ring and pastoral staff suffered, as the
most ingenious torturing could not extract any-
thing in the Levitical rites analogous to these im-
portant insignia.

The evidence of the monuments is conclusive on
two points. First, that the episcopal ring proper
was only one of a large number of rings worn by
the bishop, the others being probably purely
ornamental and secular ; second, that it was worn
on the third finger of the right hand, and above
the second joint of that finger, not being passed,
as rings are now, down to the knuckle. It was
usually kept in place with a plain guard ring.

The ring was always a circlet with a precious
stone, never engraved, and it was large enough to
pass over the gloved finger. The stone was
usually a sapphire, sometimes an emerald or a
ruby.

Although the ring is distinguishable, by its
position on the right hand as well as by other
circumstances, from the wedding-ring, Honorius
of Autun (after referring to the ring placed on
the finger of the Prodigal Son and the wedding
ring of iron with an adamantine stone forged
by * a certain wise man called Prometheus ') has
been trapped into saying that the bishop wears a
ring that he may declare himself the bridegroom
of the church and may lay down his life for it,
should necessity arise, as did Christ.

124 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

XVI. The Pastoral Slaff.—Wt have briefly
sketched the probable origin of the pastoral staff
in the preceding chapter, and come now to discuss
the forms it presented and the connexions in
which it was used during the middle ages. As
there is no department of the study of Ecclesias-
tical Vestments about v/hich so much popular
misconception exists, it will be necessary to enter
into these details at considerable length.

As utterly unfounded as the common notions
concerning ' low-side windows ' and crossed-legged
effigies is the idea that the differences in the
positions of pastoral staves as represented in
sculptured monuments have any meaning whatso-
ever, secret or personal. A pastoral staff remains
a pastoral staff, and nothing more, whether it
is on the right side of the bearer or on the
left, and whether its crook is turned inwards or
outwards.

Synonymous with ' pastoral staff' is the word
crozier or crosier ; but it is frequently ignorantly
applied to a totally different object — the cross-
staff borne before an archbishop. The statements
which we so often see in works professing to treat
on ecclesiological subjects as to the pastoral staff
being crook-headed and borne by bishops, the
crozier cross-headed, and borne (instead of the
pastoral staff) /?y archbishops, are derived from a
misunderstanding of the evidence of mediaeval

'The Final Form of Vestments, 125

monuments.* The truth is, that the pastoral
staff, with which the crozier is identical, is borne
by bishops and archbishops alike ; but archbishops
are distinguished from bishops by having a staff,
with a cross or crucifix in its head, borne hefore
them in addition. In many monuments, it is
true, archbishops are represented as carrying the
cross-staff, as, for instance, the brass of Arch-
bishop Cranley in New College, Oxford ; but it
was obviously impossible in a monument of this
kind to represent a cross-bearer preceding the
archbishop, and the slight inaccuracy was, there-
fore, perpetrated of making the archbishop bear
his own cross, thereby substantiating the evidence
of the fall^ that the person represented was of
higher rank than that of a bishop. It was better
managed at Mayence, where, in the monument
of Albrecht von Brandenburg, 1545, figured
above (p. loi), the figure is represented as bearing
both the crozier and the cross-staff, one in each
hand ; and at Bamberg, in the cathedral of which
city is a brass to Bishop Lambert von Brunnf
(1399), wherein he is represented holding the
crozier in his left hand, the cross-staff in his
right.

* This blunder has even crept into the ninth edition of
the * Encyclopaedia Britannica.'

t The bishops of Bamberg had a right to wear the archi-
episcopal pontificalia. See p. 102, afite.

126 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

In the earliest representations of a staff of office
there is a considerable variety in the shape of the
head ; knobs, crooks, and even Y -shapes, all meet
us. The shape probably depended on the shape
of the branch of the tree from which the staff was
cut, much as does the shape of an ordinary walk-
ing-stick. By St Isidore's time, however, the
crook-head had become stereotyped ; the number
of exceptional forms which we find after that date
is small. There is a considerable number of staves
of about the eleventh century, either represented
on monuments or actually existing, of which the
heads are tau-shaped ; these possibly betray
Eastern influence. A few effigies or pictures of
bishops remain with a knob-headed staff ; an
example is to be seen in a ninth-century Anglo-
Saxon pontifical at Rouen.

The crook-headed staff is, however, by far the
commonest, and after the eleventh century the
p only, form in which the bishop's crozier is
found. Some variety is discoverable in the
extent to which the staff is crooked. In some
— notably in Irish specimens — the head is
shaped like an inverted U, the form of the whole
staff being that represented in the annexed diagram;
but in the great majority of instances the head is
recurved into a spiral or volute.

In the Irish form of crozier the front is flat, and
shaped like an oval shield. This is often move

The Final Form of Vestments, 127

able, disclosing a hollow behind it, which was
almost certainly used as a reliquary.*

The materials of which the pastoral staff was
made were very diverse. The stick was of wood,
usually some precious wood, such as cedar, cypress,
or ebony. This wood was often gilt or overlaid
with silver plates. In the twelfth century the
staff was shod with iron and surmounted with a
knob of crystal, above which the crook proper
was attached. The crook-head of the Irish crozier
was of bronze ; that of the other form generally
of carved ivory. When the process of elaboration
was felt in this as in all the other sacerdotal orna-
ments, the stick as well as the head was often
carved from ivory, and either gilt or silvered
heavily, and set with precious stones. Beneath
the crook were often niches or shrines, containing
figures of saints.

The bronze Irish crozier was decorated with the
marvellous interlacing knots and bands which are
the special glory of early Irish Christian art. On
the flat front is often to be seen a plain cross, at
the centre of which is a setting for a precious
stone, and in each quarter an interlacing band.
In the volute form of crozier a different style of
ornamentation was adopted ; the surface was not

* The ordinary form of crozier was not unknown in
Ireland ; the well-known crozier of Cashel is a beautiful
specimen. The crook form was, however, earlier.

128 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

ornamented, but the head was carved into solid
forms ; in the centre of the volute was usually
represented some sacred person or scene, real or
legendary, or else some symbolical device or con-
ventional patterns. It is hard to say which of
these two forms of crozier is the better from an
aesthetic point of view. The graceful curve of
the volute certainly compares favourably with the
somewhat stiff outline of the Irish crozier ; but
the feebleness of even the best mediaeval attempts
at representing the human figure in miniature
considerably detracts from the artistic value of
the volute crozier when a human figure is intro-
duced ; while, on the other hand, the incomparable
excellence of the Irish metal-workers transformed
the U-shaped crozier into an object of great beauty.
The lines of the knots are always faultlessly exe-
cuted, and the ornamentation is invariably in good
taste.*

* This form of crozier is no doubt contemplated in the
prophecy attributed to the druids of Laoghaire, King of
Ireland, as cited in the law- tract known as the Senckus Mor —
* Tiucfaid Tailginn tar muir meirginn

A croinn cromcinn, a cinn tollcinn

A miasa in airthiur atighe,' etc. —
that is, ' the Tonsured ones shall come through the stormy
sea, their staves crook-headed, their heads tonsured, their
tables in the east of their houses,' etc. It is worth noting,
apropos of what was said on p. 115 respecting the bishop's
coro?2a, that the words 'a cinn tollcinn' — 'their heads
tonsured,' are thus glossed in the MS. — '.i. a coirne ina
cennaib' — 'i.e., their crowns on their heads.'

The Final Form of Vestments, 129

The following copy of the Lincoln Inventory
of pastoral staves (1536) illustrates some of the
points already noticed. It also indicates that the
head and staff of the crozier were separable, and,
when stored in the vestry, kept apart from one
another :

* In primis a hede of one busshopes stafFe of sylver and
gylte w' one knop and perles & other stones havyng a Image
of ow"" savyow'' of the one syde and a Image of sent John
Baptiste of the other syde wanting xxj stones & perles vv* one
bose [boss] and one sokett weyng xviij unces.

*Item one other hede of a stafFe copo^ & gylte.

* Item a staffe ordend for one of the seyd hedes the vvyche
ys ornate w' stones sylver and gylte and iij circles, a boute
the StafFe sylver and gylte wantyng vij stones.

* Item a stafFe of horn and wod for the hede of copo'.

* Item j staff covered w' silver w^^out hceid.'

In the corresponding inventory of Winchester
Cathedral we find entered three pastoral staves
silver-gilt, one pastoral staff of a * unicorn's '
(presumably a narwhal's) horn and four pastoral
staves of plates of silver.

Suspended to the top of the staff was a streamer
or napkin, which, like the lappet of the mitre, was
called the infula. This was originally introduced
to keep the moisture of the hand from tarnishing
the metal of the staff. The symbolists think it is
a ' banner ' of some sort or other.

It will be convenient, before proceeding to the
discussion of the next vestment on our list, to give

9

130

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

a few particulars regarding the archbishop's cross.
This is necessary owing to the confusion already-
noticed, which exists between the crozier and the
cross ; but as the cross cannot strictly be included
in a catalogue of ecclesiastical vestments, we shall
make our notes as brief as possible.

The custom of preceding an archbishop with
a cross was introduced throughout the Western
Church about the beginning of the twelfth century.
It was carried by one of the archbishop's chap-
lains, who in this country received the name of
* croyser,' or cross-bearer, for that reason. The
cross was usually richly ornamented with metal-
work and jewels, and often, if not always, bore a
figure of Our Lord on each face, so that the eyes
of the archbishop were fixed on the one, those of
the people on the other.

The circumstance of highest importance con-
nected with the archbishop's cross, so far as it
concerns our present purpose, is this : the prelate
never bore the cross himself, except on the one
occasion of his investiture. He then received the
cross into his own hands, but immediately passed
it on to his cross-bearer.

The Pope is often in mediaeval monuments and
illustrations represented as preceded by a cross
with three transoms of different length, the upper-
most being the shortest, the lowermost the longest.
This is simply the result of a desire on the part of

The Final Form of Vestments. 1 3 1

the artist to improve upon the patriarch's cross of
the Eastern Church, which appears to have two
transoms, the upper transom being in point of fact
a representation of the board on which the super-
scription on the cross was written.

One more staff may be worth a passing men-
tion — the staff borne as an emblem of authority
by the ruler of the choir, who looked after the
singing and behaviour of the boys. This was of
silver, with a cross-head.

The false conceptions about the crozier have
probably arisen from an inaccurate etymological
analogy with the word cross. The true derivation
connects it with such words as our crotchet and
crook.

The symbolism of the shepherd's staff is naturally
the leading thought in the minds of the mystics.
It was probably, however, considered too obvious,
and they cast about to find yet further secret
meanings. Thus, Honorius notices that the Lord
commanded the apostles to ' take nothing save a
staff only ' when they were going out to preach,
and then says that ' the staff which sustains the
feeble signifies the authority of teaching,' and
much more to the same effect. Innocent III says
that the point is sharp, the middle straight, the
top curved, to indicate that the priest should spur
on the idle, rule the weak, collect the wandering.
He flirther explains the fact that the Pope does

132 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

not bear the pastoral staff by telling us that ' the
blessed St Peter sent his staff to Eucharius, the
first bishop of Treves, whom he had sent, to-
gether with Valerius and Maternus, to preach the
Gospel among the Germans. Maternus succeeded
him in the bishopric ; he had been raised from the
dead by the staff of St Peter. And this staff is
preserved with great reverence in the church of
Treves.' St Thomas Aquinas supplements this
piece of information by telling us that for this
reason the Pope carries the pastoral staff when
pontificating in Treves."^

The episcopal staff is alleged to have borne the
following inscriptions : round the crook, * Cum
iratus fueris misericordiae recordaberis ' ; on the
ball below the crook, ' Homo ' ; on the spike at the
bottom, * Parce.' By these inscriptions the bishop
was warned that he was but a man himself ; that
in wrath he should remember mercy ; and that he
should spare, even when administering discipline.
Whether these warnings were invariably effective
is a matter into which we will not inquire.

XVII. The Tunicle. — This was simply a small
variety of the dalmatic, appropriated to the use of
subdeacons and bishops.

It differed from the dalmatic merely in being
somewhat smaller. It was made of silk or of

* Sentent. IV, dist. 24, quaest. 3, art. 3, ad jin. ed. Parmae
(1873), vol. vii, p. 913.

The Final Form of Vestments, 1 3 3

wool, and first appears about the year 820 as a
subdeacon's vestment ; but it is considerably later
than this that it appears as a bishop's garment.
In the ninth century bishops appear with but
one vestment — the alba — under the chasuble;
between the ninth and eleventh centuries the
dalmatic makes its appearance ; and it is not till
about 1200 that we find the tunicle illustrated
in paintings or effigies of bishops. A reference
to the table given in the early part of the present
chapter will show that the literary evidence points
in the same direction.

The tunicle did not escape the common fate of
all the vestments of the mediaeval church, and it,
too, became overlaid with needlework, first in a
strip across the breast of the subdeacon, then (as
this would not show under the vestments of the
bishop) on the rest of the surface. The tunicle on
Bishop Goodrick's brass at Ely Cathedral— one of
the latest representations of this vestment in Eng-
land— is as richly embroidered as the dalmatic.

In a few episcopal effigies of the thirteenth
century the dalmatic alone appears. The tunicle
being worn beneath the dalmatic, and being
naturallv smaller, was hidden. This difficulty was,
however, very soon surmounted by the simple pro-
cess of shortening the dalmatic.

Properly, the dalmatic only is fringed; the
tunicle of the subdeacon seldom, if ever, shows

134 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

this manner of ornamentation. But in the later
episcopal effigies it is by no means uncommon.

XVIII. The Orale^ or, as it is now called, the
Fanon^ is described by Dr Rock as ' an oblong
piece of white silk gauze of some length, striped
across its width with narrow bars, alternately gold,
blue, and red. ... It is cast upon the head of
the Pope like a hood, and its two ends are wrapped
one over the right, the other over the left shoulder,
and thus kept until the holy father is clad in the
chasuble, when the fanon is thrown back and made
to hang smoothly and gracefully above and all
around the shoulders of that vestment, like a
tippet.'

From the orale being supposed to represent the
ephod, as well as from the manner of its being put
on, it is probable that it was an evolution from
the amice. It is not mentioned by liturgical
writers before Innocent III, and does not appear in
paintings or monuments of much older date ; it
therefore seems to have been assumed about the
twelfth or thirteenth century.

XIX. The Pectoral Cross. — We must not omit
to mention this important episcopal ornament.
As an official ornament it is of comparatively
late introduction ; it first appears in the pages
of Innocent III and Durandus, and from the
references which these liturgiologists make to it,
it was evidently regarded by them as exclusively

The Final Form of Vestments. 1 3 5

confined to the Pope's use. Thus, Innocent says :
'Romanus autem pontifex post albam et cingu-
lum assumit orale, quod circa caput involvit et
replicat super humeros' for certain symbohc
reasons ; ' et quia signo crucis auri lamina cessit
pro lamina quam pontifex ille [Judaeus] gerebat
in fronte, pontifex iste crucem gerit in pectore.'
Dr Rock has been unable to find any trace of
the pectoral cross appearing on the breast of an
ordinary bishop before the sixteenth century.
Even by the Popes it appears before this time
to have been covered by the chasuble. Probably
the cross was originally a reliquary.

On p. 29 we referred to a MS. of uncertain
date in the monastery of St Martin at Autun,
which details the vestments worn in the Galilean
church in (probably) the tenth century. This
gives a somewhat different catalogue from the lists
of the rest of the Western Church, and displays
some Eastern influence. The pallium, casula, alba,
and stola are described so that they appear iden-
tical with the corresponding vestments elsewhere ;
the maniple also appears, under the name vesti-
mentum parvolum ; and we have in addition the
mamalia or manicae, which do not appear in any
other Western lists ; they are said in the MS.
to have been regularly worn 'like bracelets,'
and to have covered the arms of ' kings and
priests.' This points to vestments after the style

136 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

of the tTTijiiaviKia of the Greeks, which will be
noticed in their proper place in Chapter V.

We have now described the vestments worn by
the priests of the Western Church at the Euchar-
istic service, and are thus in a position to give a satis-
factory answer to the question, * Were they adap-
tations of the Jewish, or natural evolutions of the
Roman costume?' We have seen that the jeweller,
the goldsmith, and the embroiderer conspired to
make the vestments of the middle ages as gorgeous
as possible, and that therein, and in some few other
particulars, they resembled the Mosaic costume ;
but as we go back nearer and nearer to the first
ages of Christianity all the glitter drops off,
vestment after vestment disappears, till we reach
the three plain white vestments of the fourth
century, from which it is but a step to the ordi-
nary costume of a Roman citizen of good position
during the second or third century of our era.
We have also seen that all attempts at drawing
hidden meanings from the vestments fail ; the
results, when not far-fetched, are contradictory
and unconvincing.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
PROCESSIONAL VESTMENTS ; THE ORNAMENTA-
TION OF VESTMENTS.

IN addition to the garments already described,
which are more properly appropriated to the
Eucharistic service, there are a few which
are assumed on other occasions by the clergy of
the Western Church. The occasions upon which
these particular vestments are worn belong properly
to the province of Chapter VII. We accordingly
postpone the discussion of them until that chapter
is reached, concerning ourselves here with the
development, shape, and ornamentation of the
vestments themselves.

The vestments which we have to describe in
this chapter are the cassock, surplice (with its
modifications, the rochet and cotta), almuce, and
cope. These constitute the so-called processional

138 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

vestments ; a misnomer, because they are not ex-
clusively appropriated to processions. There are,
besides, certain others of a more general character,
not strictly falling under the head of either Euchar-
istic or Processional vesture, and they will be more
conveniently described in this chapter also. These
are the canon's cope, the mozetta, the Roman
collar, and the various types of sacerdotal head-
dress.

I. The Cassock, — The cassock was the long
outer gown which was worn by everyone, clerical
and lay, male and female, during the eleventh,
twelfth, and succeeding centuries. When it was
abandoned for the very much more convenient
short coat, that conservatism in ecclesiastical
matters, to which the very existence of ecclesi-
astical vestments is due, prevented the clergy from
following the example of the laity, and left the
cassock as the distinctive outer garment of the
clergy on ordinary occasions, as it still remains.
The dignity attaching to a long garment was also
probably a factor in causing its ecclesiastical re-
tention.

The Eucharistic vestments were placed over the
cassock, as the cassock was placed over the under-
garments of the wearer. But it was so entirely
concealed by the long alb that it could scarcely
be regarded as an essential part of the vestments
for the Eucharistic office. The case was different.

History of the Processional Vestments. 139

however, when the priest was vested in proces-
sional attire, for the lower end of the cassock
appeared very prominently under the surplice,
and its presence was consequently essential to
complete the processional outfit. We therefore
discuss this vestment under the head ' Processional '
rather than under the head * Eucharistic/

Cassocks were originally invented for purposes
of warmth, and hence were lined with furs. This
custom was retained when the cassock became
exclusively a clerical dress, and we often find in
monuments of ecclesiastics indications at the wrist
that the cassock was so lined. The colour of
the vestment was invariably black for ordinary
ecclesiastics, scarlet for doctors of divinity and
cardinals, purple for bishops and prelates, and on
high occasions for acolytes ; for the Pope, white.
The fur with which the cassock was lined was
ermine or some other precious kind for digni-
taries ; but ordinary priests were strictly forbidden
to wear anything more costly than sheepskin.
The cassock as we find it represented on mediaeval
monuments was probably open to the breast ; I
do not recollect having observed any counterpart
to the modern cassock, with a row of buttons from
neck to hem (humorously compared by Lord
Grimthorpe to a boiler with a close row of rivets!).
In some parts of France and in Rome the cassock
is kept in place by a sash ; this also is a modern

140 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

innovation probably suggested by the custom of
members of the monastic orders.

II. The Surplice. — From its fur lining, the
cassock was called in mediaeval Latin the pellicea ;
the name superpellicea was accordingly given to
the vestment which was worn immediately over it
— a name which has passed by natural phonetic
modifications into * surplice.'

It will be remembered that the alba of the
second or transitional epoch was a very much more
ample vestment than its successor in mediaeval
times. The chasuble, tunicle, or dalmatic (some-
times all three) had to be put on over it — an im-
possibility if it had maintained its original size.
It accordingly was contracted in size in order to
adapt itself to the new requirements ; but in so
doing the needleworkers went to the other ex-
treme, and produced a vestment which threatened
to become intractable every time the attempt was
made to put it on over the cassock when the latter
article of dress was thick and lined with fur.
These difficulties resulted in the invention of a
new garment, which retained the amplitude of the
old alba^ and was worn only when no vestment of
importance (except the cope, which was adaptable)
was put on over it. This was the surplice. The
alb was retained for the Eucharistic service, as
the upper vestments would lie over it more con-
veniently.

History of the Processional Vestments. 141

The surplice was a sleeved vestment of white
linen, plain, except at the neck, where there was
occasionally a little embroidery in coloured threads.
The sleeves were very full, and hung down to a
considerable length when the hands were con-
joined, as they generally are in monuments. The
surplice was put on by being passed over the head,
exactly like the alb ; the modern surplice, open in
front, and secured at the neck with a button, was
invented within the last two hundred years, and
was designed to make the assumption of the vest-
ment possible without disarranging the enormous
wigs which were worn during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.

III. The %ochet is a still further modification of
the alb. The sleeves are reduced to a minimum
or totally absent. It appears to have been worn,
though not always, by choristers, and there is also
evidence that it was the form of surplice favoured
by bishops. Thus we read :

' Item 8 surplices for the quere.

* Item 3 rochets/i?r children' — Inventory of St Mary Hill,
London.

'Bis adiit [Richardus de Bury] summum pontificem Jo-
hannem et recepit ab eo rochetam in loco bullae pro proximo
episcopatu vacante ex post in Anglia.'— Will, de Chambre,
'Continuatio Hist. Dunelmensis,' Surtees Society, 1839,
p. 127.

IV. The Cotta. — This is a surplice, considerably
modified, which has the advantage of being cheap,

142 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

and is accordingly worn as a substitute for the
longer surplice in poor parishes. It is a sleeveless
vestment, of crochet work or crimped linen, which
reaches to the middle of the back. It has not an
effective appearance.

V. 'The Almuce^'''' which is also variously styled
the Amys, or Amess,t was a hood lined with fur,
and, like the cassock, designed to protect the
priest from cold. In winter-time the churches —
never very warm — would have been uninhabitable
before the invention of heating stoves, had it not
been for comforting articles of apparel such as
these.

It was shaped so that it could lie over the
shoulders as a tippet, or be drawn over the head
as a hood, and it must have been very necessary
during the protracted services of the middle ages.
The vestment was almost always of black cloth, as
was the cassock ; and the fur with which it was
lined varied in quality and colour with the degree
of the wearer. Doctors of divinity and canons
wore an almuce lined with gray fur, the former

■*■ This word is a curious hybrid. The muce is the Teu-
tonic for a cap or hood {cf. Scottish mutch, German Miitze).
The word moxetta is connected with this. The al is the
Arabic article, probably attached to it at some time in Spain.

f Both objectionable terms, as they lead to confusion with
the amice, the sound of all these words being practically
indistinguishable.

History of the Processional Vestments. 143

being further distinguished from the latter by the
scarlet colour of the outside cloth ; all others wore
ordinary dark brown fur. A singular embellish-
ment of this vestment consisted in the addition of
the tails of the animals from which the fur lining
was taken sewn round the border of the vest-
ment.

At about the year 1300 the almuce, as a hood,
was superseded by a cap, which will be described
in its proper place. It was therefore thrown back,
and suffered to fall behind, somewhat after the
fashion of the hood worn in our modern univer-
sities. In order to prevent it from slipping off
when in this position, it was sewn in front, so that
an aperture was made through which the head of
the wearer had to be passed. During the four-
teenth century it gradually almost entirely lost its
hood shape, and became more and more like a
tippet, the only relic of its original form being the
two long tails which hung in front somewhat like
the ends of a stole, and which were doubtless the
remains of the strings with which the original
hood was fastened. The row of ' cattes tayles '
(as the Elizabethan reformers called them) was
also retained.

When the almuce was in position on the head,
the fur was inside, the cloth outside. Obviously,
when the vestment was thrown back over the
shoulder, the fur would be outside, the cloth

144 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

inside. This is a perfectly natural and intelligible
transformation. Mrs Dolby, in noticing it,
speaks of it in a most misleading manner. After
describing the various changes which it under-
went from hood to tippet, she says, ' By this time,
too, what was originally the outside of the gar-
ment had become the lining, and the fur the only
material rendered visible,' as though some eccle-
siastical ordinance or the freak of some clerical
tailor had brought about this transformation.
And Dr Rock says : ' Not the least remarkable
thing in these changes of the "furred amys" [as
he calls it] is, that it became, as it were, turned
inside out.' The remarkable thing would have
been if anything else had happened.

At Wells Cathedral is the monument of Dean
Huse [ob, 1305, but the tomb is a century and
half later), on which are sculptured, besides the
principal efBgy, a series of small figures of canons
holding books. The almuces of these figures
show a unique peculiarity : the tails are fastened
together on the breast by a cord which passes
through them and hangs down with tasselled ends.
Mr St John Hope, in a paper in * Archaeo-
logia,' vol. liv, p. 81, has traced the history of
the appearance of the almuce during the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries by reference to sculptured
effigies and brasses in England. From this paper
I extract the following illustrative examples :

History of the Processional Vestments. 145

I. An effigy in Hereford Cathedral, circa 131 1,
shows the almuce ' like a short cape down to the
elbows, with long and broad pendants in front,
and turned back round the neck like a loose, high-
standing collar. The chief point to notice, how-
ever, is that the vestment is quite open in front
and not joined on the breast, showing that it was
put on like a woman's shawl.'

2. Another effigy in the same cathedral, circa
1320, shows a similar arrangement with the
addition of a large morse to fasten the almuce.

3. In the fifteenth century, when the pendent
tails became common, we find two brasses at
Cobham, Kent, one showing the almuce clasped on
the breast by a brooch, the other showing it open
all down the front under the cope.

4. In a drawing at New College, Oxford,
executed about 1446, the Warden of Winchester
College is represented in a furred almuce not open
in front, but the Fellows who stand near him wear
almuces laced up the front. This drawing is re-
produced in * Archaeologia,' vol. liii, plate 14.

5. An effigy dating from the very end of the
fifteenth century in St Martin's, Birmingham,
illustrates the almuce as it appeared when the cape
was joined completely across the breast.

To these facts we may add that as a general
rule the two front tails in the earlier representa-
tions of almuces have plain ends ; in those of later

10

146 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

representations (from circa 1450) the tails have a
small ornamental tassel, or tuft, attached to their
ends.

VI. The Cope. — The cope may date back, as a
vestment, to the ninth century, but in that form it is
certainly not older. Before that time it was nothing
more or less than an overcoat, which the clergy
kept on in their cold and draughty churches or in
open-air processions. It is represented in an Anglo-
Saxon pontifical of circa 900 as a plain cloth vest-
ment, fastened at the neck by a brooch or morse ;
the shape is similar to that which we find in later
times. The shape of the cope was very much that
of half the chasuble. It was secured at the neck
by a brooch, and suffered to drape on the person.

The material, at least in mediaeval times, was silk,
cloth of gold, velvet, or other precious stuffs. It
was magnificently embroidered, jewelled, and en-
riched with precious metals, the embroideries con-
sisting either of strips along the straight edges,
which hung down in front, or else of these strips

History of the Processional Vestments. 147

combined with patterns running over the entire
surface of the vestment, or confined to the lower
border. It is hard to say whether the cope or
the chasuble was the richer vestment in the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries.

The cope, being originally a costume for out-
door processions, was furnished with a hood at the
back ; but when the almuce took its place, it
degenerated, like so many other
vestments, or parts of vestments,
into a mere ornamental append-
age ; it lost its hood form (which
would somewhat have interfered
with the appearance of the
almuce) and became a triangular
flap, usually embroidered with
some scene in sacred or legend-
ary history. In many copes
these hoods were absent, while
to others there were several
hoods, so that subjects appro-
priate to the day could be

hooked on. This triangular flap

, ,, , ... Fig. 19. — Brass of

gradually assumed curvilmear archdmacon Magnus,

sides, till ultimately the angle ?55T[s'hoJnT''pres:
disappeared altogether and the •'^i°"^^ r^'TT^' ^'''"

rr o eluding hooded cope).

flap became semicircular.

The * morse,' or brooch, with which the cope
was fastened, was the counterpart of the rational.

148 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

It was made of gold or of silver, or else of wood
overlaid with one of these metals. It was often
enamelled and jewelled, and was of a great variety
of shapes.

VII. The Canons Cope, — This vestment must
be carefully distinguished from the cafpa serica,
or ordinary cope. It was a simple choir robe, worn
at ordinary services, of black cloth, permanently
sewn at the neck, though open from the breast
downwards, so that it had to be passed over the
head. It was not ornamented in any way, and
probably for this reason was not popular as an
object for treatment among manuscript illuminators
or monument sculptors and engravers. A hood
was appended, which usually hung on the back.

VIII. The Mozetta. — This is a cape worn over
the cope by the Pope, cardinals, and bishops in the
Roman Church. It is of white fur or coloured
silk, according to the season ; the Pope wears a
red mozetta bordered with ermine when holding
receptions ; canons in choir wear a black, bishops
and (on penitential seasons) cardinals a violet
mozetta ; on ordinary occasions cardinals wear a
mozetta of red. The vestment is probably a
descendant of the almuce, and kin to the chimere.

IX. The Roman Collar. — This being an entirely
modern vestment, is properly outside our range.
It is an embroidered imitation of the turndown
shirt-collar of ordinary dress.

History of the Processional Vestments, 149

In mediaeval monuments the throat of the
priest is exposed, as are also those of present-day
members of the older religious orders. Con-
siderations of comfort and appearance have led
to the adoption of this collar for the ordinary-
clergy. It should be ' made/ says Mrs. Dolby,
* of a perfectly straight piece of fine linen or
lawn,' and * bordered on the turnover side and
along its short ends by a neatly-stitched hem of
half an inch. Opened out, when made, it is two
and three-quarter inches wide ; the turndown
should be not more than one and a half inch
deep. . . . The Roman coJlar worn by a bishop
is violet, that of a cardinal is scarlet.'

X. Ecclesiastical Head-dress. — Pseudo-Alcuin
expressly contrasts the Churches of the East and
West in this — that the Western clergy officiated
at the mass bareheaded, which was not the practice
of those of the Eastern Church. This gives us
information as to the usage of the Western Church
at about the tenth or twelfth century. In the
following century a cap is noticed * as one of the
marks by which a Churchman might be known ' ;*
and it appears in inventories, classed along with
mitres.

The use of a cap at Divine service was a matter
of special papal permission : thus, Innocent IV
issued an indult in 1245 ^^ ^^^ Prior and Convent
* Rock.

150

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

of St Andrew's, Rochester, permitting them to
wear caps [pileis uti) in the choir, provided that
due reverence be observed at the gospel and the
elevation. Two forms of cap are to be seen
in mediaeval monuments : one a simple dome-
shaped skull-cap, called hirettum ; the other a
circular cap, with a point in the centre, of this
shape ' ^ — > , which was peculiar to university-
dignitaries. The latter is pro-
bably the ancestor of the modern
biretta ; and, indeed, in a brass
of Robert Brassie in King's Col-
lege Chapel, Cambridge (1558),
appears a head-dress which is a
connecting link between the two.
The head-dress was always
black, except for cardinals and
a few bishops and others to whom
the privileges of cardinals had
been especially granted. These
wore scarlet.

We have reserved for the con-

FiG. 20.— Bkass of elusion of this chapter a more
Robert Brassie, , ., , ^ ,

detailed account of the subjects

with which, and the manner in

which these various articles of

sacred apparel were decorated.

Vestments, as represented in mediaeval sculptures

or illuminations, the testimony of which is con-

King's College,
Cambridge (show-
ing almuce and
biretta-like cap).

History of the Processional Vestments, 151

firmed by the examples which actually exist, are
not as a general rule ornamented in a haphazard
manner over the whole surface. The ornamenta-
tion is usually concentrated into patches of em-
broidery or jewel-work, which are sewn on to
certain definite places in the vestment.

In describing the vestments singly we have
already noticed the positions in which these
patches of embroidery were placed. It will be
convenient, however, to bring all these particulars
together and briefly remind the reader of them.

The alb was decorated with a rectangular patch
on the breast ; another on the back ; two more
above the lower hem, one in front, one behind ; a
small patch on each cufF (entirely encircling the
wrist in older examples) ; and a narrow binding
round the neck. The patches on the hem were
sometimes suspended loose from the belt, and the
patches on the breast and back fastened together
and suspended loose over the shoulders.

The amice was decorated with a band of
embroidery along one side, which was practically
the only part of the vestment visible when it was
in position.

The stole and maniple were embroidered along
their whole length ; they usually ended in a
rectangular or trapezium-shaped piece of cloth,
embroidered with a different pattern from
that which ornamented the rest of the vestment

152 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

(usually some form of cross), and fringed along its
lower border.

The dalmatic^ besides the peculiar arrangement
of fringes already described, was ornamented with
a series of horizontal bands of embroidered work,
running right across the body of the vestment.
The bishop's dalmatic was usually embroidered all
over.

The chasuble was almost invariably adorned
with an edging of embroidered work, and when
the body of the vestment was adorned it was
usually with some of the many modifications of
the 4^ or Y cross.

The sandals were sometimes ornamented all
over, sometimes decorated with a ^ cross, the
upper part of the cross being turned towards
the toe.

The fall properly had no ornamentation except
its crosses.

The stockings were either not embroidered at all
or richly embroidered over the whole surface.

The rational was decorated with enamel, gold-
smith's or jewelled work.

The mitra simplex was decorated with little or
no adornment ; the mitra aurifrigiata with
embroidered work all over it ; the mitra pretiosa
with embroidery combined with jewels and gold-
smith's work.

The gloves do not appear to have been con-*

History of the Processional Vestments. 153

spicuously ornamented. They often bore a large
jewel set against the back of the hand.

The tunicle was generally quite simple ; the
bishop tunicle, however, in no wise differed from
the dalmatic.

Of the orale a full description has already been
given ; we need not again refer to it.

Passing to the Processional and other vestments,
it will be unnecessary to mention any but the
cope ; for, with the exception of a little trifling
embroidered work in coloured threads round the
neck of the surplice, none of the other vestments
showed any ornamentation. The cope was orna-
mented with embroidered work down the straight
edges in front, and often round the bottom edge
and the neck as well; often also the whole
vestment was elaborately embroidered all over.
The hood, too, must not be forgotten.

For some inscrutable reason a distinction is
drawn in name between the embroidered ornaments
of the alb and amice and those of the remainder of
the ecclesiastical dress. The former are called
apparels, the latter orphreys.

The subjects with which these vestments are
embroidered must next engage our attention for a
s^hort time. These fall naturally into three broad

gi pups :

\ Conventional and meaningless devices.

2. Symbols or figures of Divine or beatified

154 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

persons, or passages of Scripture and other
religious inscriptions.

3. Personal devices.

The number of conventional patterns which
meet us embroidered on ecclesiastical vestments is
endless, and to attempt to catalogue even the most
striking would be an undertaking the magnitude
of which would only be equalled by its uselessness.
A small collection of rubbings of monumental
brasses will convince the reader of this. Floral
devices are the most common, either in continuous
scrolls or in repetitions and variations of the same
pattern ; and these are found combined with
patterns of the other two groups to fill up the
gaps and spandrels between different figures or
letters. But grotesque and real animals, wild
men, and various other objects of natural history,
all have their place ; though, if the evidence of the
monuments be reliable, these were not so common
in England as in the other countries which yielded
allegiance to the Western Church. It is, of
course, possible that some of these figures may
have been intended as emblems of saints,* and
others may have been heraldic ; but it is probable

* For example, the lamb (besides its more sacred signifi-
cance) may possibly be taken as symbolical of St Agnes, the
dragon of St George or St Margaret, the lion of St Jerome,
the lily, sun, moon, stars, or rose of St Mary the Virgin, md
so on indefinitely.

History of the Processional Vestments. 155

that the majority of them were simply ornaments
with no other intention beyond filHng up space
effectively.

The symbols of Divine or beatified persons are
of more interest. These are usually found on the
centre orphreys of the chasuble, on the edges and
hood of the cope, on mitres, and on rationais or
morses, the orphreys of the other vestments being
usually conventional, floral, or animal devices.
The hood of the cope almost invariably bore some
emblematic or sacred device, or else some scene in
sacred or "traditional history ; the edge of the cope
and the centre of the chasuble often bore figures
of saints in niches, one above another, or else
connected scenes from the life of a saint ; while
the rationais and morses, which were under the
province of the enamellers (and were consequently
more easily decorated than the embroidered vest-
ments), usually displayed some more elaborate
design in miniature.

Of the greatest importance, however, are devices
of the third order — those which display the name,
initials, rebus, or coat-of-arms of the wearer or
the donor of the vestment. In monuments these
designs invariably are connected with the name
and family of the wearer, while the personal
^devices recorded in inventories are usually con-
■lected with the donor. The reason is, probably,
tjhat the vestments catalogued in inventories

156 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

originally were made for, and worn by, the donors
thereof ; during their lifetime the devices showed
forth the wearers' names ; after their death, the
names of the testators : while the monuments,
which were supposed as nearly as possible to
represent the persons commemorated as they
appeared while they lived, would naturally pour-
tray the vestments which they wore, or might
have worn, when celebrating mass or conducting
the other offices of church service.

Mediaeval priests and embroiderers seem to have
shrunk from placing these personal devices on the
chasuble, though such ornamentation is not alto-
gether unknown even in that most reverenced of
vestments. Thus, at Arundel, Sussex, is a brass
representing a priest in ecclesiastic vestments, in
which the initials of the wearer occur on the
chasuble. The cope, however, often shows
initials or other designs'^ which serve to identify
* Examples of an entire name occurring on copes are
extremely rare. I only know of one — the brass of Thomas
Patesley (1418), at Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire. Initials
are common in almost every county ; rebuses not quite so
common, though we have the famous ;z?^/>/^-leaves (alternating
with M's) in the cope of a priest called Mapleton, as shown
on his brass at Broadwater, Sussex ; while heraldic devices
are fairly frequent, either as complete shields or selections
from the charges borne by the priest's family. The brasses
of Wm. de Fulbourne, at Fulbourne, Cambridgeshire, and of
Thos. Aileward, at Havant, Hampshire, give us examples of
both these methods of ornamentation. '

History of the Processional Vestments, i^j

the wearer. The same chariness does not seem to
have been felt with regard to the other Eucharistic
vestments, possibly because they were not so ex-
clusively appropriated to the Eucharistic service.
Thus, at Beverley Minster there is a sculptured
effigy of a priest whose entire stole is covered with
a series of coats-of-arms.

As I have already said, this group of orphrey
patterns is of considerably greater importance than
the other two, which cannot be regarded as other
than mere artistic curiosities. It is generally
possible to identify the personality of the priest
commemorated by a monument, even if the in-
scription be lost or defaced, when these convenient
symbols enter into the composition of the orphreys
on his vesture. This helps us in assigning the
date of the monument ; and every monument of
which we know the date exactly adds something
to our stock of knowledge respecting the chron-
ology of mediaeval art.

As giving an idea of the number and variety of
the designs employed by the embroiderers and
enamellers to decorate the vestments of the church,
it has been thought that the following table will not
^be found uninteresting. It is a classified catalogue
of the designs enumerated in a single inventory of
a single collection of vestments, the inventory of
the commissioners of Henry VIII, drawn up in
1536, of the property of Lincoln Cathedral.

158 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

It has not been considered necessary to preserve
the uncouth spelling of the original, especially as
some words are scarcely spelt the same way twice
in the course of the document. Nor has it been
thought worth while to swell the bulk of the list
by giving details as to the parts of the vestments
on which the various objects are represented, or the
frequency with which those occurring more than
once are found, the purpose of the list being
simply to show faintly the variety of designs at
the disposal of the embroiderer or enameller. It
should be premised that this is by no means a
complete list ; in many cases the inventory gives
little or no information concerning the decoration
of the vestment catalogued. Most probably, how-
ever, all ornaments of interest or importance are
here included :

Group I

Flowers :

Fleurs-de-Iys (possibly heraldic).

J . '[-possibly emblematic of St Mary the Virgin,

Biriis and beasts, or parts thereof:
Leopards.
Harts.
Falcons.
Falcons bearing crowns of gold in their mouths;

(probably heraldic).
Swans.
Ostriches.

History of the Processional Vestments. 159

Ostrich feathers.
Popinjays.
Lions.
Owls.

Black eagles.
Peacocks.
Gryphons.
Dragons.
Phoenix.
Miscellaneous :
Knots.
Clouds.
Crowns.

(Also a few others, properly included under
Group II.)

Group II

Divine Persons :

The Holy Trinity,

Our Lord.

The Majesty.

The Holy Ghost, Crucifix, and St Mary the Virgin.
Incidents in the life of Our Lord^ and His emblems :

Our Lord with the Cross.

The Passion, in scenes.

The Crucifixion.

Ditto, with SS Mary and John on either side.

Ditto, ditto, the Father above.

The Ascension.

Our Lord sitting on the rainbow.

The root of Jesse.

The vernacle.

The Holy Lamb.

Crosses,

i6o Ecclesiastical Vestments,

Members of the Holy Host of Heaven :

[Archangels, angels, and images, passim.]

Two angels singing.

Two angels incensing.

An angel bearing a crown.

Two angels bearing St John Baptist's head (properly

heraldic).
An angel with a harp.
Scenes in the Hfe of St Mary the Virgin and her embkfns :
Salutation.
St Mary ; on the left side three kings, on the right two

shepherds, and an angel with ' Gloria in excelsis.'
St Mary with the Holy Child.
Ditto, and St Mary Magdalene.
Burial.
Assumption.
Coronation.
* Our lady of pity.'
Wm. Marshall (donor of vestment) kneeling to the

Virgin.
Suns, Moons, Stars.
Roses, lilies. (See Group I.)
Other Saints and their emblems :

'History of Apostles and Martyrs.'

St Peter.

St Catherine.

St Catherine (the tomb springing oil).

St John Baptist.

St Bartholomew.

History of St John Baptist, ^ Probably in different

History of St Thomas, / scenes.

Wheels (St Catherine),

Keys (St Peter).

The Majesty, SS Mary the Virgin, Peter, Paul,

the four evangelists, and a man kneeling to them.

History of the Processional Vestments. i6i

Various Scenes in Sacred History :

Eve eating of the tree.

The massacre of the innocents.

The last judgment.
Uncertain and Miscellaneous Subjects :

A bishop (probably some saint).

A king (perhaps King David).

Kings and prophets.

Two kings crowned.
Inscriptions :

The hye wey ys best.

'Divers verses.'

Da gloriam deo.

Gracia dei sum, etc.

Vox domini super aquas.

Cena dni.

Also the following, which form a connecting-
link between the second and third groups, being
requests for prayers for the donors of vestments :

Orate pro anima Magistri Willelmi Skelton.

„ J, Willelmi Spenser capellani.

„ „ Magistri Ricardi Smyth vycar de

Worseworth,

„ „ Roberti Dercy.

Memoriale Willelmi Marshall olim virgarii hujus

ecclesiae.

Group III
Heraldic :

Leopards powdered with black trefoils (? leopards

ermine).
'White harts crowned with chains on their necks
full of these letters S.S.'

II

1 62 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

Orphreys with diverse arms.

Mullets.

'All may God amend' (Rudyng motto), together

with Rudyng arms and badges.
*A shield paled.'
Arms of Lord Chadworth.
Names, Initials , and Dedicatory Inscriptions :
Ricus de Gravesend.

T.S., I.e., O.L., P.D. (on different vestments).
Ex dono Johannis Reed Capellani Cantar' quondam

cantarie Ricardi Whitwell.
Southam ex dono Johannis Southam.
Ex dono M" Willelmi Smyth archidiaconi Lincoln.

In many vestments, especially among those of
early date, the embroidery is of a distinctly
Oriental character, which, if not actually Byzan-
tine, is founded on Byzantine models. These
were popularized throughout Europe by the
Mohammedan weavers and their successors of the
royal establishment in Sicily. Often vestments
are found bearing Arabic or other Oriental inscrip-
tions ; these are sometimes meaningless, like the
patterns formed with Arabic letters on many
Eastern shawls and cloths of modern times, but
occasionally they give important information as to
the date and origin of the vestment which they
decorate. The coronation vestments of the German
Emperors, now at Vienna, are of entirely Eastern
character, and the cope bears inscriptions in Cufic
characters, telling us that it was made at Palermo

History of the Processional Vestments, 163

in 1 133. Occasionally the Eastern ornaments
and inscriptions are forged (alas, for mediaeval
morality!), in order to counterfeit the workman-
ship of the highly popular Eastern looms. Some-
times we find clumsy imitations of Arabic words
treated ignorantly by the forger as ornaments, the
word being written correctly, though in an obvi-
ously amateurish manner, from right to left, and a
replica reversed set opposite to it, in order to
balance it symmetrically !

No country excelled England in embroidered
work in the middle ages. Matthew Paris's story
of Pope Innocent IV's admiration of some English
vestments is well known. His holiness, * seeing
some desirable orphreys in the copes and infulae of
certain English ecclesiastics, asked where they had
been made. " In England," was the answer.
" Truly is England our garden of delights," said
he ; *' truly is it a well inexhaustible ; and where
much is, thence can much be extorted." Where-
upon the Pope, allured by the lust of the eyes,
sent his sealed letters to nearly all the abbots of
the Cistercian order in England (to whose prayers
he had just been committing himself in the
chapter-house of the Cistercian order) that they
should not delay to send those orphreys to him-
self — getting them for nothing, if possible — to
decorate his chasubles and choral copes.' Matthew
Paris concludes his narrative by telling us that the

164 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

London merchants were gratified enough, but that
many were highly offended at the open avarice of
the Head of the Church.*

This leads us to another point to be noticed
with regard to mediaeval vestments — their value as
articles of merchandise. In the * Issues of the
Exchequer/ 24, 25 Henry III (a.d. i 241-1242),
there are several entries of expenses involved in
purchasing vestments. Thus we find 4I. 19s. paid
to Adam de Basinges * for a gold cope purchased
by our command and placed in our chapel at the
feast of the Nativity of our Lord in the 25 th year
of our reign : also to the same 24I. is. 6d. for a
cope of red silk given to the Bishop of Hereford
by our command in the same year and day : also

* Eisdemque diebus dominus papa videns in aliquorum
Anglicorum ornamentis ecclesiasticis, utpote in capis chorali-
bus et infulis aurifrisia concuplscibilia, interrogavit ubinam
facta puissent. Cui responsum est In Anglia. At ipse, \'^ere
hortus noster deliciarum est Anglia ; vere puteus inexhaustus
est ; et ubi multa abundant de multis multa possunt extorqueri.
Unde idem dominus papa concupiscentia illectus oculorum
literas suas bullatas sacras misit ad omnes fere Cisterciensis
ordinis abbates in Anglia commorantes quorum orationibus
se nuper in capitulo Cisterciensi commendaverat ut ipsi
aurifrisia ac si pro nihilo ipsa possent adquirere mittere non
different pracelecta ad planetas et capas suas chorales adom-
andas. Quod mercennariis Londoniae qui ea venalia habe-
bant non displicuit, ad placitum vendentibus : unde multi
manifestum avaritiam Romanae ecclesiae detestabantur. —
M. Paris, 'Chronica Majora' (Rolls Series), vol. iv, p. 546.

History of the Processional Vestments. 165

to the same 17I. i8s. lod. for two diapered and
one precious cloth of gold, for a tunic and dal-
matican entirely ornamented with gold fringe pur-
chased by our command and placed in our chapel
the same year and day : also to the same 47s. lod.
for a chesable of silk cloth without gold purchased
by our command and placed in our chapel : also to
the same 7s. 2d. for an albe embroidered with
gold fringe purchased by our command and placed
in our chapel: also to the same 17I. i mark for
two embroidered chesables purchased by our com-
mand and placed in our chapel.'* The same year
the enormous sum of ^82 was given by the King
for a mitre.

It has been calculated that the present value of
money is fifteen times greater than it was in the
thirteenth century. Applying this principle, we
obtain the following results, which give a clearer
idea of the value of the vestments purchased by
the King :

A cope costing 4I. 19s. would be worth, at present rates,

X74 5s.

A cope costing 24I. is. 6d. would be worth, at present

rates, ;f36i 2s. 6d.

Tunic and dalmatic costing 17I. i8s. lod. would be worth,
at present rates, ^^269 2S. 6d.

A chasuble costing 2I. 7s. lod. would be worth, at present
rates, £t,^ 17s. 6d.

* 'Issues of the Exchequer' (ed. Dover), p. 16.

1 66 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

An alb costing 7s. 2d. would be worth, at present rates,
£S 7s. 6d.

Two chasubles costing 17I. 13s. 4d. would be worth, at
present rates, £26^.

A mitre costing 82I. would be worth, at present rates,
^1,230.

Even if we allow that these vestments, being
royal gifts, or royal furniture, were of larger price
than usual, it still remains evident that a set of
vestments was an expensive luxury. And when
we consider the enormous number of vestments
which were existing in the different cathedral
establishments, we can hardly wonder at the
cupidity of Henry VIII being aroused. Mr
St John Hope has calculated that in Lincoln (of
which we possess perhaps the fullest set of in-
ventories) the commissioners of 1536 found
125 red copes, 7 purple, 20 green, 1^6 blue,
9 black, 60 white, 2 yellow, 2 various, and perhaps
4 for choristers — 265 in all ; 16 red chasubles,
3 purple, 6 green, 11 blue, 5 black, 9 white,
I yellow and i various — 52 in all ; 2 dalmatics,
94 tunicles, and 131 albs, not to mention other
property in embroidered work, such as altar
frontals, or in precious metal, such as chalices.
It is, of course, impossible to assign an estimate of
the value of this vestry, but even if we reckoned
the copes at ^^^50 of our money — a low estimate in
the majority of cases — these vestments alone would

History of the Processional Vestments, 167

be worth ^13,250 together. But this is pure guess-
work and of no practical value ; of more import-
ance is such an entry as the following, from the
old Durham ' Book of Rites ' (printed by the
Surtees Society) :

* Prossession of Hallozve Thursdaie, Wkitsondaie ^ Trinitie
Sonday, by the Prior and the Monnckes. — The next morninge,
being Hallow Thursdaie, they had also a generall Prossession,
with two crosses borne before theme, the one of the crosses,
the staff and all, of gould, the other of sylver and parcell gilt
. with all the riche Copes that was in the Church, every
Monnke had one, and the Prior had a marvellous riche cope
on, of clothe of ffyne pure gould, the which he was not able
to goe upright with it, for the weightines thereof, but as men
did staye it and holde it up of every side when he had it on.
He went with his crutch in his hand, which was of sylver
and duble gilt, with a rich myter on his head.'

In the private account-book of the last prior
but one of Worcester* is given the following inter-
esting bill for a mitre :

*Item to John Cranckes gold smyth of london for al
maner of stuff belongyng of the new mytur, with the makyng
of the same as hit apereth by parcelles foloyng :

In primis for v grete stones - - - xvis viijd.

Item for j^] & vj stones prece viijd apeece to

the frontes Ivijs iiijd.

Item for xxj stones sett in golde, weyng di.

vnces xiijs iiij^i- '

Item for xl medyll stones, prece vjd a stone xxs.

* Quoted in the Builder, 7 July 1894..

1 68 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

Item for " & xv smale stones prece iiijd a

stone, to garncsshc ----- xxvs.
Item for iij vnccs & a quarter of fyne peerll,

at iij li. the vnce iij* li xvs.

Item for xij vnces of medull peerll, at xs the

vnce vj li.

Item the selver warke weys, in all ," xiij vnces,

w^hich is with the fassheon & all - - xxiiij li xvjs.
Item to the broderar vj wokes (? zvekes) xijd

a day, besydes mete & dryncke - - xxxvjs.

Item payd for lynnen cloth to covvech ytt on

with peril vijd.

Item for sylke to thred the seid peril & steche

the peerll j vnce & di - - - - xvd.

Item for yalovv thred - - - - - jd.

Item for Rybande of iiijd brcde ij yeards - viijd.
Item for Reband of ijd brede A yearde - ijd.

Item for Rovvnde selk about the bordure - jd. ob.
Item for red selke to sow hytt with all, di.

quarter the vnce ----- ijd ob.

Item for past ------ iiijd.

(Item) for a quarter of sarcenett to lyne hytt xiiijd.
Item for a case to the mytur of Icthur - - iiijs.

Summa xlixli. xvs. the costc of the mytur.'

Before parting with the ancient vestments of
the Western Church, let us spend a few moments
on another, and to the antiquary a melancholy,
subject, namely, the fate which has befallen them.

The number of actual vestments which survive
to our own day is comparatively small. Notwith-
standing the scrupulous care with which they were

* Sic, should be viiij or ix.

History of the Processional Vestments, 169

kept, the action of time and probably of moths
could not but destroy the perishable material of
which they were made ; and as so sacred were
they regarded that when a vestment was worn out
it was burnt, and the ashes thrown into and washed
down the drain of the piscina, or font ; so, at least,
it was ordered by the ninth canon of the Synod
of Dublin, 11 86.* In France and in England,
however, far the greatest havoc was wrought in
the religious and political troubles of the eighteenth
century in the former case, of the two centuries
preceding in the latter.

The destruction of churches and church pro-
perty in France at the hands of the atheistical
mobs of the Revolution was incalculable. Monu-
ments, glass and fabrics were broken and ruined, if
not utterly destroyed, and the vestments and Pro-
cessional crosses were torn from the treasuries and
heaped up in the streets to be burnt in bonfires.
In England the damage was perhaps even more
considerable, though it was executed in a quieter
and more deliberate manner. In the reaction after
the revival of the Roman faith under Queen Mary,
orders were sent to the churchwardens of the
different parishes requesting returns from them as
to the relics of popery, if any, which remained in
the churches under their care, and the manner

" Worn-out vestments were also found useful for the inter-
ment of ecclesiastics, as we have seen, supra p. loi.

170 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

in which such superstitious objects had been dis-
posed of, whenever they had been removed. A
very perfect series of these returns exists for
Lincolnshire, and they have been edited by Mr
Edward Peacock, F.S.A., in a highly-interesting
volume entitled ' English Church Furniture and
Decorations,' published in 1866. In each return is
a note describing what was done with the vestments
and other pre-Reformation furniture of the church
to which the return relates. From them we extract
the following entries, which may serve as speci-
mens of the varied fate of vestments, not only in
the county of Lincoln, but throughout the country :

Jllford. Itm one cope whearof is made a clothe for the
colon table [a frequent entry].

Itm one vestment [chasuble] sold and dcfacid [a frequent
entry].

Ashbie iuxa Sleford. Itm vestmetes copes crosses aulbes
phanelles crosse clothes banner clothes and all such lyke
ymplements — stolle out of or churche in quene maries tyme.

Ashbie iuxa Spillisbie. Itm one vestmt with crose clothes
— geven to the poore Ao iij° Regine Elizabth [a frequent
entry].

Itfn an alb — whearof wee have made a surples [a frequent
entry].

iAswardbie. Itni two vestmentes were cut in peces yester-
daie and sold to Thomas waite and george holmes and the'
haue put them to prophane vse.

Bomnbie. Itm a vestm* and ye rest as fanells, stooles and
such like — brent iiij yeare ago pte of the same and the rest
hath made quishwines of John Michill and James Totter then
churchwarden.

History of the Processional VestmeJits. 171

So we find at Braceby an alb made a covering
for the font. At Castlebytham we find ' one cope
one vestment and one albe ' were ' sold to Thomas
Inma' for the some of Vs. Vpon sondaie was a
sevenighte wch he haith defaced and cutt in peces.'
Elsewhere, a vestment was made into a 'dublett,'
others into * clorvtes for children,' or ' hangings
for a bedd.' Some churches had lost their vest-
ments in the Edwardian Reformation, and conse-
quently, when they were required again in Queen
Mary's reign, substitutes had to be borrowed from
private owners. These were * restored ' to their
possessors ; in a few cases the churchwardens
thoughtfully cut them in pieces before doing so.

There is one other series of vestments which
deserves a passing notice — the vestments in which
the newly-baptized were clothed. In the sixth or
seventh century these consisted of the alha^ the
sabanum, the chrismale, and the garland. The
alba was probably similar to the clerical alba ; the
form of the sabanum {aa^avov) is uncertain, but it
was possibly not more than its name implies —
simply a towel. The chrismale was a piece of
white linen tied on the head, intended to keep the
chrism in its place during the week in which
these vestments were worn. The garland was a
chaplet of flowers with which the baptized were
crowned after baptism.

There is a rite in the Armenian Church in

172

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

havin

which the priest twists two threads, one white and
one red, lifts them up under the cross, and then
lays them on the person to be baptized. The
white and red is obviously symbolical of the
mingled blood and water which flowed from our
Lord's side, but there are obscure traces in early
writers which seem to indicate that this observance
was ot more general acceptance, and that the
present rite is a corruption of something quite
different. Durandus, in the ' Rationale Div.
Off.,' vi, c. 82, speaks of the alba of baptism
it a red band like a ' corona,' and
elsewhere we find a combination of
red and white mentioned in con-
nection with the robes of the
neophytes.

These vestments were worn
throughout the week after baptism,
and put off on the Sunday follow-
ing, hence called Dominica in albis
depositis. They were either re-
tained after baptism as a memorial
of the sacrament — and often used
as shrouds after death — or else pre-
sented to the church by the baptized.
In the mediaeval church this
comparatively elaborate suit was
reduced to one cloth, the chrysome, or chrism
cloth, in which the body of a newly-baptized infant

Fig. 21.

History of the Processional Vestments. 173

was swathed. This cloth was kept upon the child
for a month, and if it died within the month the
child was buried in it as a shroud. Several monu-
mental brasses are extant in which children are
represented in their baptismal robes ; we repro-
duce an example in Chesham Bois Church,
Buckinghamshire. In the modern Roman Church
the white cloth is merely placed on the head ; it is
now too small to cover the body.

Fig. 22.— a Cope Chest, York Minster.
The chrism cloth was taken off if the child
survived till the end of the month, and returned
to the church, in whose custody it^ was kept.
These cloths were used for the reparation of vest-
ments and altar hangings, and other sacred textile
fabrics connected with the church. Thus in the
Treasurer's Rolls for Ripon we read (1470-71)
the following entries :

174 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

' Est de cc'^^Ixvj veslibus crismalibus de reman, ultimi
compoti praedicti. Et de c'^^iij vestibus crismalibus rec. de
tot pueris baptizatis hoc anno. Summa ccciiij-'^'^ix.* De
quibus.

* In sepultura puerorum viij. Et in reparacione vesti-
mentorum, xiiij. Et liberantur pro manutcrgiis inde fiendis,
ordinatis pro expensis ecclesiae, ix. Et liberantur pro
calicibus involvendis et aliis necessariis ejusdem ecclesiae,
vj. Summa xxxvij. Et reman. ccc"^^lij vestes crismales.'f

■* There is an error of twenty somewhere in this calcula-
tion.

t ' Memorials of Ripon,' vol. iii, p. 219 (Surtees Society).

CHAPTER V.

THE VESTMENTS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES.

THE proverbial conservatism of the un-
changing East, which is felt in all
ecclesiastical as well as in social matters,
will make our task in the present chapter much
lighter. The action of evolution, which makes
the history of the Western vestments so complex,
is hardly felt in the East. The mediaevalism,
or, rather, primaevalism, which shuts out in-
strumental aid from the musical portions of the
Eastern service acts upon vestments in minimiz-
ing the profusion of ornamentation which plays
such an important part in the externals of Western
ritual.

One of our earliest authorities on the subject of
Eastern vesture is St Germanus of Constantinople
(circa 715 a.d.). In his treatise Mvcttikyj Qewpia
he enters at considerable length into a discussion
of Ecclesiastical Vestments and also of Monastic

176 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

Costume, giving details, which are curious, but of
little or no value, concerning the alleged sym-
bolic meanings which they bear.

In the present chapter we have to discuss the
vestments of the principal Eastern Churches — the
Orthodox ' Greek ' Church, so called, the Armenian
Church, and the remote body of Christians on the
coast of Malabar. The general appearance and
style of the vestments of these churches is similar ;
there are, however, minor differences, which will
appear as we proceed.

The vestments and personal ornaments of the
Orthodox Greek Church are as follows :

I. The (Troiy6.pLov.

II. The eTTiiiavLKLa.

III. The e7rtT/3ax>yAioi/.

IV. The (hpdpLov.
V. The ^a>vrj.

VI. The cfyaLvoXtou.

VII. The eTTtyovaTtcv.

VIII. The (j!)/xo(f>6piov.

IX. The fxdvSvas.

X. The x^H-"-^^^XV-

XI. The €^(x})(^aiJ.aXav)(7j,

XII. The Traripeorcra.

XIII. The lyKoATTtov.

XIV. The craKKos.

The Armenian vestments are as follows :

I. The Vakass.

II. The Shapich.

III. The Poor-ourar.

The Vestments of the Eastern Churches, 177

IV. The Kodi.
V. The Pasbans.
VI. The Shoochar.
VII. The Sagavard.

Fig. 23.— Armenian Priest.

The Malabar vestments are

I.

The Cuthino.

II.

The Orro.

III.

The Zunro.

IV.

The Zando.

V.

The Phaino.

VI.

The Cap and Shoes

12

178

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

I. The GToiyapiov was, and is, identical with the
Roman alba. The word is of uncertain etymo-
logy, and none of the guesses which have been
made are at all satisfactory. Like the alba, it was
originally a garment of secular use ; this we infer

Fig. 24. — Malabar Priest.

from the Apologia contra Arianos,^ where we read
that one charge (among others) which was brought
against Athanasius was that he had required the
Egyptians to furnish linen (sroiyapm. Germanus
says of the vestment, ' being white, the aroiyapiov
* 'Patrol. Graec./ xxv, 358.

Fig. 25. — Deacon in

<XTOLX<^P'-oi' , uipapioi', AND eTTifxauLKia.

i8o Ecclesiastical Vestments,

signifies the glory of the Godhead and the bright
citizenship of priests. The stripes of the aroiyapiov
on the sleeve signify the bonds of Christ ; the
stripes which run across signify the blood which
flowed from Christ's side on the cross.' Setting
aside the symbolism, we learn that the vestment
in the time of Germanus was white, ornamented
with stripes, probably red, upon the sleeves and
across the body. At present, while the vestment
is still white on ordinary occasions, on certain days
coloured aroiyapia are worn, as will be shown in
the chapter on Ritual Use. The Xiopla, or
stripes, are now confined to the aroiyapia of bishops.
In Russia, and elsewhere to some extent, the
GToiyapia are often made of silk or velvet, though
linen remains the proper material ; here we see a
notable correspondence with Western usage.

The shapich of the Armenians and the cuihino
of the Malabar Christians correspond to this vest-
ment and do not differ from it. It goes by other
names in other parts of the Eastern Church ; these
are set forth in the appendix. Deacons, members
of the minor orders, and choristers wear the
shapich ungirded.

II. The tTTi/j-aviKia. These correspond to the
Western maniple, but they differ from it in
several notable respects. First, one is provided
for each arm instead of for the left arm only.
Secondly, they are not worn pendant on the arm,

Fig. 26. — Priest in cttolxo-Plov , e-mTpaxv^i-ou, (paLVo\LOV, idovrj, AND
CTTi/iaj't/cta.

1 82 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

but are drawn round, so that they rather resemble
cufFs than napkins suspended on the wrist. In
some early mosaics they are shown not so much as
cufFs, as large false sleeves. Something similar
seems to have been worn in the Gallican Church,
if we may accept the testimony of the MS. already
referred to on p. 135.

This vestment — for the two pieces may be said
technically to form one vestment — was for a long
time restricted to bishops only, but priests and,
since 1600, even deacons have had the right to
wear it. Bishops only, however, are allowed to
have the kirmaviKia embroidered with the ukwv of
Christ.

The kiTiixaviKia are alleged to signify the bands
with which Christ was bound.

The Armenian pasban corresponds to the
ETni^iavLKiov ; so does the zando of the Malabar
Christians. Both pasban and zando are worn one
on each wrist ; but whereas the Armenian vestment
is more like the Western maniple, the zando is a
false sleeve, fitting the arm tightly and extending
some way above the elbow.

III. The imTpayriXiov is in essence identical
with the stole of the Western Church, but in form
it differs widely. Instead of being a long narrow
strip passed behind the neck, it is a short broad
band with an aperture at one end, through which
the wearer's head is passed, so that instead of two

Fig. 27. — Archimandrite in ^aLv6\Lov, i-myovdrLov, iyKdXTnoi', etc.

1 84 'Ecclesiastical Vestments.

ends pendant, one at each side, there is but one,
hanging down in the middle. It is probably the
richest of all the Eastern vestments ; it is made of
silk or brocade, and in large churches is orna-
mented with jewels and precious metals. A
seam runs conspicuously down the middle,
dividing the band into two ; this gives the vest-
ment a more stole-like appearance than it would
otherwise possess.

The Armenian foor-ourar and the Malabar
orro are the equivalents of this vestment, and
resemble it in appearance. Both names are
evidently corruptions of the Greek wpapiov.

IV. The tjpdpiov is the Diaconal substitute for
the ewiTpayrjXiov. It is identical with the Latin
stole, and, like that vestment when worn by
deacons, is carried on the left shoulder. St
Germanus informs us that it typifies the ministry
of angels, in that it resembles a pair of wings ;
this, like many other similar statements, may be
taken for what it is worth. The sole difference
between the wpdpiou and the stole lies in its
ornamentation ; the latter is ornamented in a
perfectly unrestricted manner, the former bears
embroidered upon it the rpiadyiovy

Anoc Anoc Anoc,

and the Armenian Church as a general rule
dispenses even with this inscription.

Fig. 28. — Bishop in (patuoXiou, iTn-yovaTiov, d}/xo<p6pt.ou, etc.

1 86 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

V. The Z^vt) is simply a girdle which keeps the
cToiyapiov and kiTiTpayJiXiov in place. To it
answers the Armenian kodi and the Malabar zunro.
The Armenians suspend a large white napkin to
the kodi on the left-hand side, which is used to
wipe the hands or the vessels when necessary
during the service, and thus takes the place of the
old Western maniple.

VI. The (^iaivoXiov answers in all respects to the
Western chasuble ; and it is evident that we are
to see in its appellation the old name paenula.
The Malabar Christians have a vestment called
the phaino^ which in appearance corresponds to the
cope ; but its use assimilates it to the (^aivoKiov^ as
we should expect from the identity of name.
The phaino is made of more or less costly
materials, it is square (not semicircular) in shape
with rounded corners. A button and loop
ansv/er the purpose of the Western morse. It
may be here stated that the embroidery and
material of the zando usually corresponds with
that of the phaino with which it is worn. The
priests of the Armenian Church also wear a cope-
shaped chasuble. Small bells are sometimes hung
round the lower edge. The <^aivo\iov of bishops
was formerly distinguished from that of priests by
being covered with crosses ; hence called (jiaiuoXiov
TToXvaravpiov,

VII. The iTTiyovaTioif is a lozenge-shaped orna-

The Vestments of the Eastern Churches, 187

ment, made of brocade, and suspended by one corner
on the right side of the eirirpay^riXia of bishops. It
is ornamented with embroidery on its surface, and
with tassels attached to the three free corners. It
was originally a handkerchief, and it remained in
this form for some considerable time ; in fact, it
remains a handkerchief in the Armenian Church.
Although properly peculiar to bishops, certain
other ecclesiastics wear it as a special privilege.

VIII. The dj/Liocpopiov is equivalent to the
Western pall (though it is worn by all prelates,
not by archbishops only), and similar to it in
shape ; it is, however, rather wider, and is worn
round the neck in a knot. It is said to symbolize
the lost sheep — presumably from its being
carried on the shoulder.

IX. The indv^vaQ is a vestment similar to the
cope, worn on certain occasions by Archimandrites
and the higher orders of the Hierarchy. The
difference between it and the Western cope
consists in its being rather fuller, and fastened at
the lower ends in front as well as at the top.
Small bells are hung round its lower edge. The
jLiaif^vag of an archimandrite is not ornamented ;
that of a prelate is decorated with wavy stripes
called TTOTafjia Ka\ irw^ara, ' rivers and cups'* — a

* The assonance cannot be satisfactorily preserved in
translation. Perhaps 'rivers and lavers * is the nearest
approximation our language affords.

1 88 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

fanciful method of expressing the * rivers of grace
which flow from him.'*

X, XI. The yai^LoXavyy] is a cap, the k^tiyyafxa-

\avyj) a hood worn over it. The k^uyafjiaXavyji
of a Metropolitan is white, signed in front with a
black cross, that of other prelates black.

XII. The naTtpecraa corresponds to the pastoral
staff, but it is shorter and is used as an ordinary
walking-stick, which it resembles in every
particular. The handle is usually an ornamental
modification of the crutched or tau cross. The
bishops of the Eastern Church wear no ring.

XIII. The eyKoXiriov is a pectoral cross, worn in
the East, and similar in all respects to the cross
worn in the West.

XIV. The aa/c/coc is the equivalent of the Western
dalmatic : it is now worn by all metropolitans.

The Armenian vestments which have not been
described in the above conspectus are (i) the
sagavard^ or priest's cap ; (ii) the vakass^ a
vestment which corresponds to the Western amice,
and is nowhere else worn in the East. It differs
from it in the collar standing upright instead of
being turned down. Attached to the vakass of
high dignitaries is a breastplate of precious metals
and stones, bearing the names of the twelve
apostles. This is as obviously borrowed from the
Jewish * breastplate of the Ephod,' as the vakass
* Neale.

'The Vestments of the Eastern Churches. 189

itself is borrowed from the Western amice ; but
the Armenians deny any Western influence in the
dress, asserting the entire vestment to be of Jewish
origin ; (iii) the shoochar, which answers in every
respect to the cope ; and (iv) the sandals, which
are worn during service, are kept in the church,
and may not be used on other occasions.

Vartabeds (/.^., priests especially entrusted with
the work of preaching and instructing the
ignorant in the principles of the religion) and
bishops substitute a mitre for the sagavard, and
wear a pectoral cross hanging by a gold chain
round the neck. The copes of bishops are
ornamented by two strips of brocade, usually
embroidered with figures of saints; these are
survivals of the infulae of the mitre, but are
attached to the shoulder of the cope. Vartabeds
are distinguished by a staff of which the head
consists of a cross with two serpents turned round it.

The Armenian Church permits clergy to remain
married if the marriage hath taken place before
ordination. The ordinary dress of unmarried
priests consists of a black or dark purple cassock
with a broad belt, over which is worn a gown,
and (at the recital of the offices) a cope. In
Persia and Armenia they wear a cap with fur
border called the kulpas. Married priests wear a
blue cassock, a black gown, and a blue turban.

The vestments of the Nestorian Church are

190 ^ecclesiastical Vestments.

perhaps the simplest of the forms of dress in
vogue in the various non-reformed Churches.
They are six in number, and are respectively called
the frazona^ peena^ zunndra^ hurrdra^ estla or
shorshippa^ and msdne. These correspond re-
spectively to breeches, surplice, or alb, girdle,
stole, chasuble, and shoes, but they differ in some
degree from the analogous vestments in use
elsewhere. They are all made of white linen or
calico, the only colour employed being in the
girdle and stole, which (to use the convenient
heraldic terms) are cheeky in squares white and
blue, bearing crosses of the same colours counter-
changed. The chasuble, too, has a Latin cross
worked on the back. The latter is a clumsy
vestment, being simply a square cloth, thrown
over the shoulders and held in position with the
finger and thumb. The stole does not reach
below the waist, and is kept in its place under the
girdle. It is remarkable that the vestments of the
different orders of clergy differ only in the quality
of the material, and not in elaboration or form ;
and that they are, as a general rule, only worn
during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist or
the administration of Baptism. At other services
the priests usually wear their ordinary costume,
which differs only slightly from that of laymen.

The following list will show the parallelism
existing between the vestments of the East and of

The Vestments of the Ka stern Churches. 1 9 1

the West ; it is useful as showing that the differ-
ences between them consist entirely in matters of
detail, and not in essentials :

[vakass] = amice.

(noi\a.piov — alb.

€-n-LfiavcKia = maniple.

(jOpdpLOV J

^<x)V7] = girdle.

(jiaLVoXtov = chasuble.

cTTtyovariov may be compared with appendages of

subcingulum.
(x)ixo(f)6piov =pall.

}j.dvBva^ =cope, approximately.

Xai^aXaixv^ U mitre
€^u)xaixa\av)(rj )

TraTepecrcra = pastoral staff.

iyKoX-Tiov = pectoral cross.

(TOLKKOi = dalmatic

Thus, the eTriyovariov, fiavcvac;, 'y^a/.iaXavyj] and

s^txy-^^afxaXav^v have no exact equivalent in the
West ; while, on the other hand, the amice is only-
represented in one provincial church, and the
tunicle, dalmatic, gloves, ring, stockings and
sandals, have no Eastern vestments to correspond
with them. This is just what we might expect,
for these vestments are all, comparatively speaking,
of mediaeval invention or application, and the
Eastern Church, as we said in other words at the
commencement of this chapter, preserves many of
the primitive rites and usages in a condition much
less altered by time than does its Western sister.

CHAPTER VI.

THE VESTMENTS OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES.

ONE of the main differences between a
church unreformed and a church re-
formed lies in this : that in the former
the externals of public worship are magnified in
importance even to the minutest detail, while in
the latter the weight attached to such matters is
diminished in a greater or less degree.

Considerable variety is apparent in the import-
ance attached by different reformed churches to
these matters, and, in consequence, considerable
variety is apparent in the extent to which they are
elaborated. Those churches which at the Re-
formation retained the episcopate, retained with it,
in a more or less modified form, many of the old
usages ; while those churches which abolished the
hierarchical and restored the democratic system of
church government, for the most part abolished
the customs of their pre-reformation predecessors.

"The Vestments of the Reformed Churches. 193

Perhaps among no bodies of Christians are the
externals of worship so little heeded as among the
English dissenting sects ; these, being composed of
seceders from a reformed church, may be said to
have undergone a double reformation, which has
had the effect of expunging the last traces of
ritual from their services. In the consequent
neglect of order, the wearing of robes of office
has become entirely optional, not only with
the different sects, but even with the individual
ministers ; and where a gown is worn, as no
definite shape of gown is prescribed, the choice of
robe remains optional. Hence, these bodies need
not concern us further, as the discussion of their
vestments would be merely an uninteresting and
morotonous account of the practice of isolated
modern congregations.

The four churches whose usage must occupy
our attention in the present chapter are the
Lutheran churches of Germany and Scandinavia,
the Episcopal churches of England and of Spain,
and the Presbyterian churches, with especial refer-
ence to the church of Scotland.

§ I. The Lutheran Churches.

Of all reformations, the least thoroug'h, as far
as outward observance was concerned, was the
reformation in which Martin Luther pl-ayed the
leading part. In Liibeck is the brass of the

13

194 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

Lutheran Bishop Tydeman, who died in 1561,
representing him in full Eucharistic vestments, in
no wise differing from the vestments of his non-
reformed predecessors. At the present day the
predominance of the Evangelical church in Ger-
many (as distinguished from the Lutheran) has
abolished vestments, with the exception of the
Geneva gown and its attendants, among the Pro-
testants ; but in Sweden and Denmark, where the
Protestant Episcopal is still the national church,
the old vestments, with some modifications and
omissions, are retained.

The Lutheran minister of the present day in
Sweden and Denmark is described as wearing an
ample cassock, or black gown, and a white frilled
ruff, or collar, both in his outdoor life and at
morning and evening prayer. At the Communion
Service he assumes an alb, or, rather, surplice —
a white, ungirded garment, open down the front —
over which is placed a chasuble with a large cross
on the back.

The Swedish Kyrko-Handbog recognises there
vestments : the chorkappa^ messhake and messe-
sjorta — answering to the cope, chasuble, and sur-
plice, respectively.

\ II. The Anglican Church.

The history of vestments and their usage in
England subsequent to the reformation is not

The Vestments of the Reformed Churches, 195

lacking in complexity, and is rendered harder to
unravel by the heated discussions carried on, and
the contradictory assertions brought forward, at
the present day by the various parties within the
English church. It is no part of our duty here
to give an account of the different recensions of
the liturgy published and approved in the years
after the reformation ; we are here only con-
cerned with the rubrical directions which they
contain to regulate the use of vestments permitted
in the English church.

The first English Prayer-Book, published in
1549, contained the following injunction :

* Upon the day and at the time appointed for the ministra-
tion of the Holy Communion, the Priest that shall execute
the holy ministry shall put upon him the vesture appointed
for that ministration, that is to say, a white alb plain with a
vestment or cope. And where there be many Priests or
Deacons there so many shall be ready to help the Priest in
the ministrations as shall be requisite ; and shall have upon
them likewise the vestures appointed for their ministry, that
is to say, albes with tunicles.'

It is quite clear, even without the documentary
evidence which is forthcoming, that this was
merely intended as temporary, as, indeed, was
the whole 1549 Prayer-Book. In a letter which
Fagius and Bucer addressed to their Strass-
burg friends, describing their reception by Arch-
bishop Cranmer, there is given a short account

196 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

of the ceremonies then in use. In the course of
this letter, they say, * We hear that some con-
cessions have been made both to a respect for
antiquity and to the infirmity of the present age,
such, for instance, as the vestments commonly
used in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.'

An inspection of the rubric will show that it
was ingeniously designed to please all parties.
The word * vestment,' of course, means the
chasuble, the vestment par excellence^ and therefore
often spoken of in that apparently general way.
The ' alb and vestment ' being specified did not
necessarily exclude all the other vestments which
were worn between these two. Hence those clergy
who preferred the old rites and ceremonies might
read the rubric into permitting, or even enjoining,
the maintenance of the old vestments,* while those
who subscribed to the principles of the reforming
party might set at defiance all old usages by wear-
ing the cope while celebrating the Communion.

Another rubric relating to vestments appears in
the first Prayer-Book. This is the first rubric
printed after the order for the Communion, and
runs thus :

* Upon Wednesdays and Fridays the English Litany shall
be said or sung in all places . . . and though there be none
to communicate with the Priest, yet these days (after the

* With one modification only. The albs are expressly
ordered to be worn plain.

The Vestments of the Reformed Churches, 197

Litany ended) the Priest shall put upon him a plain albc
or surplice, with a cope, and say all things at the altar
(appointed to be said at the celebration of the Lord's Supper)
until after the offertory. . . .'

Finally, in this Prayer-Book also occurs the
following :

'In the saying or singing of Mattins and Evensong,
baptizing and burying, the minister in parish churches and
chapels annexed to the same shall use a surplice. And in
all cathedral churches and colleges the archdeacons, deans,
provosts, masters, prebendaries, and fellows, being graduates,
may use in the quire, besides their surplices, such hood as
appertaineth to their several degrees. And whensoever the
bishop shall celebrate the Holy Communion in the church, or
execute any other public ministration, he shall have upon
him, beside his rochet, a surplice or albe, and a cope or
vestment, and also his pastoral stafF in his hand, or else borne
or holden by his chaplain.'

The revised Prayer-Book of 1552 is much more
strino-ent in its reformation of vestment-use. It
condescends to mention vestments but once, in a
prohibitory rubric, which reduces vestment-use
in the English Church to an almost Presbyterian
simplicity. This rubric is as follows :

* And here it is to be noted that the minister at the time
of the communion, and at all other times in his ministration,
shall use neither albe, vestment, nor cope : but being arch-
bishop or bishop, he shall have and wear a rochet: and being
a priest or deacon, he shall have and wear a surplice only.

In the Prayer-Book of 1559 a rubric is to be
found requiring the restoration of the vestments

igS Ecclesiastical Vestments,

and ornaments of the first Prayer-Book, thereby-
setting aside the order of the second Prayer-Book.
At the consecration of Archbishop Parker in 1559,
we are told that at morning prayer the archbishop-
elect wore his academical robes. After the sermon,
the archbishop-elect and the four attendant bishops
proceeded to the vestry, and returned prepared for
the communion service, the archbishop in a linen
surplice, the Bishop of Chichester in a silk cope,
the Bishops of Hereford and Bedford in linen
surplices, but the Bishop of Exeter (Miles Cover-
dale) in a woollen cassock only. Two chaplains
of the archbishop, who assisted the Bishop of
Chichester at the communion service, also wore
silk copes.

After the communion service they again pro-
ceeded to the vestry and returned, the archbishop
in ' episcopal alb,' surplice, chimere of black silk,
and a collar of precious sable-fur round his
neck ; the Bishops of Chichester and Hereford
in episcopalia, namely, surplice and chimere.
Coverdale and the Bishop of Bedford wore cas-
socks only.

This passage shows us that the right of private
judgment was exercised, even at such an important
ceremony as the consecration of an archbishop, in
1559 as now. The Puritan principles of Cover-
dale were given full sway even when acting in co-
operation with his less austere brethren.

The Vestments of the Ke formed Churches, 199

It also introduces us to a new vestment, the
chimere, which is one of the greatest puzzles to be
found in the subject of vestments. Since the
Reformation, it has continued ever since as a dress
peculiar to bishops, but its origin and the exact
date of its introduction are uncertain.

The chimere is a short coat, properly without
sleeves ; but in England the tailors of the Stuart
period transferred the sleeves of the rochet to the
chimere. Hence the modern English bishops wear
sleeveless rochets and sleeved chimeres — both sole-
cisms. The English chimere is black, though
from the reign of Edward VI to that of Elizabeth
it was scarlet ; but the form current on the Conti-
nent, a large cape called the mantelletmn, is scarlet,
and the chimere worn by the Roman prelates in
England is purple.

It is not unlikely, from the appearance of the
vestment, that it is a modification of the cope
or almuce — possibly a combination of the two
vestments.

In 1560 Thos Sampson writes complaining to
Peter Martyr that ' three of our lately-appointed
bishops are to officiate at the table of the Lord,
one as priest, another as deacon, and a third as
subdeacon, before the image of the crucifix, or at
least not far from it, with candles, and habited in
the golden vestments of the papacy.' This seems
to indicate that at Court (where this was to take

200 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

place) the old vestments were kept up. From a
letter of Miles Coverdale's written in 1566, we
learn that the square cap, bands, and tippet were
enjoined to be worn out of doors (* Zurich
Letters,' vol. i, p. 6^, vol. ii, p. 121 ; Parker
Society).

In all the subsequent Prayer-Books, the ' Orna-
ments Rubric,' as it is called, is the source of our
information with respect to the vestments re-
quired to be worn in the English Church. This
famous rubric runs thus (as given in the Prayer-
Book of 1662) :

* And here it is to be noted, that such ornaments of the
church and of the ministers thereof, at all times of their
ministration, shall be retained and be in use, as were in this
Church of England, by the authority of Parliament, in the
second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth.'

The indefiniteness observed in the Edwardian
rubrics, to which this injunction refers, invests the
' Ornaments Rubric ' with a certain vagueness ;
and this is responsible for the long and violent
strife that has waged around it, and for the chaotic
condition of modern Anglican order, both in
vestments and other observances.

Recent attempts have been made on the part of
individual clergymen to introduce certain details
of the ritual of the Western Church into the
services of the Church of England. All such
innovations are, however, regarded as illegal,

The Vest?nents of the Reformed Churches. 201

and clergymen attempting to introduce them lay
themselves open to prosecution. The rulings
in the case known as the Folkestone ritual
case (Elphinstone v. Purchas) is the standard of
reference in such matters. Among many other
details, the use of the following vestments was
declared absolutely contrary to the Ecclesiastical
Law of England : The biretta, chasuble, alb, and
tunicle at the Holy Communion ; the cope at
Holy Communion except on high feast days in
cathedrals and collegiate churches. On other
occasions a decent and comely surplice is to be
used by every minister saying the public prayers
or administering the sacrament or other rites of
the Church.*

This tendency to elaboration and to revival of
mediaeval practices is not, however, altogether of
modern growth. In Wells Cathedral is the effigy
of Bishop Creighton, who died in 1672, clad in
cassock, amice, alb, and cope, the latter with a
jewelled border. On his head is a cap with side-
flaps, over which is ^imitrapretiosa. More singular
still, considering that the person commemorated
was an ardent reformer, is the brass of Bishop
Goodrick at Ely Cathedral, who died in 1554.

* For a complete analysis of the ' Ornaments Rubric ' with
elaborate historical and legal disquisitions, reference should be
made to the published report of the Folkestone case (Kegan
Paul, 1878).

202 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

He is represented in full Eucharistic vestments of
the pre-Reformation period. Both these apparent
anomalies are probably to be accounted for by the
Romanizing tendency of the reigning monarchs
under whom both these persons lived.

The vestments of the clergy did not escape the
lash of the satirists of Queen Elizabeth's reign.
About 1565, for instance, a tract was published
entitled ' A pleasant Dialogue between a Soldier of
Berwick and an English chaplain : wherein are
largely handled and laid open such reasons as are
brought for maintenance of Popish Traditions in
our English Church.' The soldier speaks thus to
Bernard, the priest : ' But, Bernard, I pray thee,
tell me of thine honesty what was the cause that
thou hast been in so many changes of apparel
this forenoon, now black, now white, now in silk
and gold, and now at length in this swouping
black gown, and this sarcenet flaunting tippet.'
This describes Bernard as first in his ordinary
cassock or clerical dress ; then in his surplice for
morning prayer ; then in the cope for communion ;
and, lastly, in the preaching gown and tippet.
The passage is interesting, as it brings the practice
of wearing a black gown at the sermon, once uni-
versal in the English Church, but now fast dying
out, back almost to the reformation.

One more English church vestment remains to
be noticed — the scarf This is a broad black band

The Vestments of the Rejormed Churches. 203

of silk, which is worn like a stole, passed round
the back of the neck and allowed to depend on
either side. It is worn by doctors of divinity
and by the clerical authorities of collegiate and
cathedral bodies. Its origin is possibly to be found
in the stole, but it is more probably a modification
of an article of University costume.

During the imposition of Episcopacv upon
Scotland in the Stuart period the dress of the
clergy was of a form designed by no less a person
than his Sacred Majesty King James I himself
At that monarch's own request the Parliament of
1609 passed an Act authorizing him to do so,
assigning in its preface the reasons for this step to
be ' that it had been found by daily experience
that the greatness of his Majesty's empire, the
magnificence of his Court, the fame of his wisdom,
the civility of his subjects, were alluring princes
and strangers from every part of the world, and
that it was fitting that bishops and ministers,
judges and magistrates, should appear before those
in becoming apparel ; it was therefore referred to
his Majesty's serene wisdom to devise appropriate
garments and robes of office for these different
functionaries.'

The result of this was an order ' that ministers
should wear black clothes and in the pulpit black
gowns ; that bishops and doctors of divinity
should wear " black cassikins syde to their knee "

204 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

[equivalent to the " bishop's apron " of the modern
English prelate and the short Presbyterian cassock],
black gowns above, and a black craip [scarf] about
their necks. The bishops were ordained to have
their gowns with lumhard sleeves, according to the
form of England, with tippets and craips about
their craigs [necks]/

In 1 63 1 Charles I directed the surplice to be
worn. In 1633, when he visited Scotland, the
bishops and chaplains officiated before him in
surplices. He induced Parliament to pass an Act
like that of 1609, giving him the power to regu-
late clerical costume ; but this was so much
objected to by the clergy themselves (some of
whom expressed a fear that his Majesty would
order them to wear ' hoods and bells '), that in
1634 they petitioned the King not to interfere
with the arrangements of his predecessor ; and
their request seems to have been granted.

§ III. The Reformed Churches of Spain
AND Portugal.

The practices of both these churches are com-
mendably simple : a white tunic, or surplice, and
a white stole, are the only vestments or ornaments
at any time to be worn, except in sermons or at
funerals, when a black gown may be assumed.
Deacons wear their stoles in the ancient diaconal

The Vestments of the Reformed Churches, 205

fashion, i.e., over the left shoulder and under the
right arm ; presbyters wear theirs round the neck
and hanging straight down.

§ IV. The Presbyterian Church.
We have already shown that in Apostolic times,
and the first few years of the post-Apostolic

Fig. 29.-A Synod Meeting of the Reformed Church of
France.

period, robes of office were not worn by the
officiating minister. Vestments do not meet us
until the moderatorship of the Ecclesiastical
Assemblies had crystallized into the Episcopate.
The oldest Christian organization now existing

2o6 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

in which the diordinal system of government has
been restored is undoubtedly the Waldensian
church. Although this church has not been
proved to be older than the thirteenth century, it
cannot be asserted that its foundation is not
anterior to that date ; an impenetrable mist —
rendered more obscure, it must be admitted, by
the doubtful authenticity of many of the church
documents — shrouds its early years. Unfortunately
it cannot be discovered whether its clergy wore
any distinctive robes when conducting its services.
The chroniclers have not thought it worth their
while to tell us, but it is improbable that anything
very elaborate was worn, as a church which made
a change so drastic as the abolition of the Episco-
pate would be unlikely to maintain the elaborate
accessories of the non-reformed church. At present
the simple black gown is worn, as in all other
branches of the Presbyterian church throughout
the world.

The task of compiling details regarding the
vestments of the Presbyterian church is rendered
easy by the small account which that church, in
all its sections, takes of ritual matters ; but the
same cause also increases its difficulty in another
direction. Paradoxical as this statement may
appear, it becomes intelligible when we reflect that
but few Presbyterian assemblies would consider it
consistent with their dignity to take any notice of

The Vestments of the Reformed Churches, 207

matters of dress, personal or official ; while on the
other hand few Presbyterian writers have thought
such matters worthy of their notice. The writer
has referred to liturgies in the English, French,
German, Roumanian, and other languages, repre-
senting the chief reformed Churches of Europe
holding the Presbyterian system, but has failed to
find any rubrical direction or reference containing
any information. The collecting of material is
thus simplified by the small amount of material
actually available, but rendered difficult by the
baldness of the records in which the materials have
to be sought.

The vestments worn by clergy of the Presby-
terian Churches are not so much ecclesiastical as
professional or academical, like the barrister's
gown. They are at most four in number : the
cassock, scarf, bands, and gown, to which the hood
of the wearer's degree is added.

The cassock is a somewhat ugly garment of
black silk, which resembles an ordinary short coat ;
it rarely reaches as far as the knees. There can be
no doubt that it is a modification, for conveni-
ence' sake, of the long cassock worn by clergy of
the Episcopal Churches, which was the inner gar-
ment, university and clerical, of the middle ages.
The scarf is a long strip of black cloth, wound
sash-wise round the waist and knotted in front.
The bands are two short pendant tails of white

2o8 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

lawn, hanging in front, now fastened round the
neck by an elastic cord. These survive in the
universities as well as in the Presbyterian Church.
The name was originally applied to the Eliza-
bethan ruff, in which must be sought the proto-
type of the ecclesiastical bands ; and the use of a
cylindrical box to keep the ruff in has caused the
survival of the old meaning of the word in * band-
box.' The stiff starched of propped band passed
at the commencement of the seventeenth century
into xhQ falling band (not unlike a modern child's
lace collar), of which the ecclesiastical * bands ' is
the diminution.

The gown is of the pattern known as the
Geneva gown — a black silk gown with ample
sleeves and faced with velvet.

It should be here remarked that there is con-
siderable laxity in individual usage. The cassock
and scarf are almost universally discarded, and, in
fact, they were probably never very generally worn.
For the Geneva gown is often substituted the
gown proper to the university degree of the wearer.

Very few regulations affecting robes have been
passed by any of the assemblies of the churches in
the Presbyterian Alliance. The General Assembly
of the Church of Scotland in 1575 passed an im-
portant injunction, which, however, refers rather
to personal than to official attire. As it is a
curious document, we give it here in full :

"The Vestments of the Reformed Churches. 209

'For as muche as a comelie and decent apparrell is
requisite in all, namelie, ministers, and suche as beare
functioun in the kirk, first, we thinke all kinde of browdering
[broidering] unseemlie ; all begaires [coloured stripes] of
velvet, in gowne, hose, or coat, and all superfluous and
vaine cutting out, steeking [stitching] with silkes, all kinde
of costlie sewing on pasments [laces], or sumptuous and large
steeking with silkes ; all kinde of costlie sewing or variant
hewes in sarkes ; all kinde of light and variant hewes in
clothing, as reid, blew, yellow, and suche like, which declare
the lightnesse of the minde ; all wearing of rings, bracelets,
buttons of silver, gold, or other mettall ; all kinds of super-
fluiteis of cloath in making of hose ; all using of plaids in the
kirk by readers or ministers, namelie, in the time of their
ministrie and using their office ; all kinde of gownning,
cutting, doubletting, or breekes of velvet, satine, taffatie or
suche like ; and costlie giltings of whingers and knives, and
suche like ; all silk hatts, and hatts of diverse and light colours ;
but that their whole habite be of grave colour, as blacke,
russett, sad gray, sad browne ; or searges, worsett, cham-
lett, grogram, lylis, worset, or suche like; that the good
Word oi God, by them and their immoderatenesse, be not
slandered."*'

There is one rule, or rather unwritten conven-
tion, affecting the wearing of vestments in the
Presbyterian Church, at least, in the British Islands.
The bands are regarded as an indication that their
wearer is the minister of a recognised congrega-
tion ; hence, when an ordained minister of the
Presbyterian Church who does not hoJd such an

"^ Calderwood, 'Historic of the Kirk of Scotland ' (Wodrow
Society), vol. iii, p. 354.

14

2IO Ecclesiastical Vestments.

office happens to be conducting a service, he does
not wear bands.

The Geneva gown has not always been worn in
the Presbyterian Churches abroad. Thus in the
Church of Holland, till recently, the official costume
of a minister was a picturesque uniform, consisting
of the old three-cornered hat, and a coat resem-
bling the ordinary evening-dress coat, having a
long pleated strip called the * mantle ' hooked on
the neck, obviously a survival from an earlier and
more ample gown of some kind, knee-breeches,
buckled at the knees, and buckled shoes. This
costume was worn only when the minister was
officiating at service. It has nov/, however, been
universally abandoned for the Geneva gown.

The gown and bands, with or without the
cassock and scarf, are now worn only at Divine
Service ; but in the early part of the seventeenth
century (in Britain as on the Continent) they were
worn by ministers sitting in assembly as well, in
accordance with the decree of the Synod of Fife,
which in i6it ordained that ministers should
attend meetings in the exercise of Synodal assembly
in black gowns and other abul^iements* prescribed
in the Act of Parliament.

The elders never wear any insignia of office, and
never have done so.

■^ Habiliments.

CHAPTER VII.

THE RITUAL USES OF VESTMENTS.

WE have now described the form and
ornamentation of the different vest-
ments worn by the clergy of the
principal sections of Christendom ; but we have
only Incidentally touched upon another and equally
important matter, namely, when and how these
vestments were worn, and the liturgical practices
connected with them. A more extended account
of these matters will be the subject of the present
chapter.

The non -reformed Western and Eastern
Churches alone need occupy our attention. The
vestment uses of the various reformed churches
are practically nil^ and all available details concern-
ing these Churches have already been given in the
preceding chapter.

Vestments were obtained by a church or a
cathedral in many ways. They were often em-
broidered for presentation to the church by ladles,

212 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

who found in the work of embroidery an easy and
pleasant way of passing the time ; or else by the
inmates of nunneries as a religious work. Some
were presented as expiatory offerings by conscience-
stricken laymen ; others bequeathed as a perpetual
memorial by incumbents or prelates. Others,
again, were purchased with money mulcted as
compensation for sins.

The first sacred function in which any vestment
took part was its own benediction. This was
always spoken by a bishop, and was in form of
prayers said over all the vestments of a suit
together, and the individual vestments separately.
The following may be taken as specimens of these
dedicatory prayers ; it is unnecessary to occupy
space in giving all, as complete sets can be found
in any Pontifical :

Benedictio 07?iniu7?i vestit?ientorum simul. — Omnlpotens Deus
qui per Moisen famulum tuum pontificalia et sacerdotalia ac
levitica vestimenta ad explendum ministerium eorum in con-
spectu tuo, et ad decorem tui nominis, per nostra humilitatis
servitutem pontificare ►J* benedicere ►f* consccrare digneris
►f< ut divinis cultibus et sacris misteriis apta et benedicta
existant ; hiisque sacris vestibus pontifices, sacerdotes seu
levite tui induti ab omnibus impulsionibus seu temptacionibus
malignorum spirituum muniti et defensi esse mereantur,
tuisque ministeriis apte et condigne servire et inherere, atque
in hiis placide tibi et devote perseverare tribue. Per Chris-
tum. Oremus.

Deus invicte virtutis auctor, et omnium rerum creator ac
sanctificator, intende propicius ad preces nostras, et hec indu-

The Ritual Uses of Vestments. 2 1 3

menta levitice et sacerdotalis glorie ministris tuis sumenda tuo
ore proprio benedicere i^ sanctificare ►J^ et consecrare dig-
nerls omnesque eis utentes, tuis misteriis aptos, et tibi in eis
devote et amicabiliter servientes grates effici concedas. Per
Christum Dominum.

Bejiedictio Amicti. — Oremus. Benedic Domine quesume
omnipotens Deus amictum istum levitici seu sacerdotalis
officii et concede propicius ut quicumque eum capiti suo im-
posuerit benedictionem tuam accipiat ; sitque in fide solidus
et sanctitatis gravedine fundatus. Per Christum. Etc.

The vestment thus dedicated was sprinkled with
holy water after each prayer.

The ritual uses of vestments may be con-
veniently described in two parts ; discussing in
the first the persons by whom they were worn,
and, in the second, the occasions upon which, and
the manner in w^hich, they were worn.

The vestments were distributed among the
different orders of clergy in a manner similar to
that in which the early vestments of the second
period were allotted (see p. 28), but on a more
complex system, as befitted their greater elabora-
tion. Some hints of this system have already been
given in the preceding pages ; it will be convenient
here to amplify this information.

The seven orders of the Western Church are
the three minor orders [ostiarius^ lector^ acolytus)^
and the four major orders (subdeacons, deacons,
priests, and bishops ; we may divide the last into
three subdivisions, ^bishops proper, archbishops,

214 'Ecclesiastical Vestments.

and the Pope). All ranks wore the alb^ and all
the major orders the maniple. . All those above
the rank of subdeacon wore amice and stole^ and all
above the rank of deacon the chasuble. Subdeacons
were distinguished by the tunicle^ deacons by the
dalmatic ; both vestments were added to the outfit
of bishops, the latter with a remarkable distinction
already described (p. 79). Tho. stockings^ sandals^
suhcingulum (originally), mitre, gloves, ring, and
staff WQvt peculiar to bishops and to certain abbots
to whom these pontificalia had been expressly
granted by the Pope.^ Archbishops added the
pall to this lengthy catalogue, and the Pope (who
dispensed with the pastoral staff) reserved the
orale, and in later times the suhcingulum, for his
exclusive use.

We now turn to the consideration of the occa-
sions upon which, and the manner in which, these
vestments were worn.

The vestments worn at the mass by the cele-
brant and his assistants were those which we have
described under the heading of ' Eucharistic Vest-
ments,' and of these one, the chasuble, was worn
exclusively at this service and at no other.

In Advent, and between Septuagesima and
Easter, the deacons and subdeacons were directed

* When the abbot of a monastery was also a bishop, the
prior had also the right to wear pontifcalia when his superior
was absent.

'The Ritual Uses of Vestments, 215

to substitute chasubles for their dalmatics or
tunicles ; and these chasubles were ordered to be
worn, not in the usual manner, but folded, and
passed across the breast like the diaconal stole.
That is to say, the chasuble, which must have
been of a flexible'''' material, was folded into a strip
as narrow as possible, and secured over the shoulder
and under the girdle of the alb. These were not
to be worn during the whole service, however ;
the subdeacon had to remove his folded chasuble
at the Epistle ; at the Gospel the deacon had to
cross his over the left arm, and so keep it till after
the post-communion.

There is but one representation of a deacon so
vested known to exist in England. It is one of a
series of sculptured effigies of ecclesiastics on the
north-west tower of Wells Cathedral. These
have been described by Mr St John Hope in
' Archasologia,' vol. liv. We give here the figure
to which special reference is at present being made.
Besides the chasuble, the effigy is vested in cassock,
amice, alb, and girdle ; and a book, probably
meant for the Gospels, is represented as carried in
the hand.

It should be observed that at the mass of a

* The difficulty oi folding the chasuble without injuring
it has led to the substitution of a broad purple stole-like vest-
ment, worn exactly like the folded chasuble. This is called
the St ohm.

2l6

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

feast falling within the limits of time prescribed,
the ordinary dalmatic and tunicle were worn in
the ordinary way.

Fig. 30. — Deacon in Folded Chasuble, Wells Cathedral.

This peculiar custom was unknown to the
Franciscans. The deacons of this order put o.T

The Ritual Uses of Vestments, 217

the dalmatic entirely upon fast-days, and did not
substitute any other vestment for it ; a similar
practice, with respect to the tunicle, was observed
by the subdeacons, so that the deacons wore alh
and stole only, the subdeacons alb and maniple.
This practice was not observed at the Vigils of
Saints, or of the Nativity, and on a few other

occasions.

When a cleric of sacerdotal rank 'ministered (as
opposed to celebrated) at the mass, his dress was
the amice, the alb, the stole, and the cope. The
same vestments are worn by the priest at the mass
of the pre-sanctified* on Good Friday.

Before the vestments are put on for the mass
the priest must wash his hands, and prepare the
chalice, placing over it the purificator or napkin
used for wiping the sacred vessels. Above the
purificator he places the paten, with an unbroken
host, and covers it with a small linen cloth, over
which he puts the burse. This done, he takes
the vestments one by one ; he first receives^ the
amice, takes it by its ends and strings, and kisses
the middle of it where there is a cross. A prelate,
it should be noticed, always puts on a surplice
before vesting. The amice being put in its place,
the alb and girdle are then assumed, then the
maniple and chasuble. Each vestment is kissed
* The Sacrament when used on a day when the Eucharist
service is not gone through in its enurety.

21 8 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

before being put on, and a prayer said with the
assumption of each ; these prayers differ little in
style from those said in the similar ceremony in
the Eastern Church, and it has therefore been
thought unnecessary to give them here.

In an inventory of, the Vestry of Westminster
Abbey,* the following directions are given in a late
fifteenth-century hand :

The Revestpg of the abbot of Westnf att evensong. — fFyrst
the westerer shall lay the abbots cope lowest opon the awter
vv'^ in the sayd westre, nex opon hys gray Ames, then hys
surples, after that hys Rochett and uppermost his Kerchure.

Hys Myter & crose beyng Redy w^ hys glovys and ponty-
fycalls.

The Revesting of the sayd abbot att syngyng hy Masse. —
Fyrst the westerer shall lay lowest the chesebell. a bove that
the dalmatyke and the dalmatyk w' y^ longest slevys upper-
most & the other nethermost then hys stole & hys fanane
and hys gyrdyll, opon that his albe theropon his gray Ames a
bove that hys Rochett and uppermost hys kerchur w' a vestry
gyrdyll to tukk up his cole.

Hys Miter Sc crose beyng Redy w"^ hys glovys and ponty-
fycalls And a fore all thys you muste se that hys sabatyns &
syndalls be Redy at hys first cuyng whan he settyth hym
downe in the travys.

This direction is important in one respect. It
shows us the order in which the vestments were
put on, it is true ; that, however, one would
naturally infer from the order in which they are

* Edited by Dr Wickham Legg in ' Archaeologia,' vol. lii.,
p. 195.

"The Ritual Uses of Vestments, 2 1 9

seen in the monuments. But it tells us also that
a canon wore his canonical habit underneath his
mass habit at high mass, but so arranged that it
should be, as far as possible, out of sight ; hence
the direction to have ' a vestry girdle to tuck up
his cowl.' At Wells, Hereford, and Norwich
Cathedrals are to be seen figures of canons, the
almuce or amess appearing at the neck, although
they are vested in eucharistic habit.

The duty of the minister, as far as the
vestments of the celebrant are concerned, consists
in seeing that the vestments are laid out in their
proper order on a table in the vestry, or, should
there be no vestry, on a side-table near the altar
(never on the altar itself) ; the vestments for the
assistant should be on the right-hand side of those
for the celebrant, the vestments for the deacon and
subdeacon on the left. He should also see that
each is properly put on, especially that the alb is
drawn through the girdle so as to overhang it and
to be raised about a finger's breadth from the
ground, and that the chasuble is straight. He must
especially be careful that the assistant does not
put on his cope before the priest puts on his
chasuble. During the celebration he has to see
that the chasuble is not disarranged by genuflexions,
and to raise the chasuble so as to give complete
freedom to the priest's arms at the elevation of the
host. After the celebration the vestments are

220 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

taken off with similar ceremonies in the reverse
order.

On Ember days, Rogations, in processions, and
when the Sunday or Saint's day mass is said in the
chapter house, on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday,
and Palm Sunday, albs and amices only are to be
worn by the ministers.

The dress at the ordinary offices (mattins, lauds,
etc.) is amice, alb, stole, and cope ; a brass at
Horsham represents a priest so vested, and has
the merit" of showing the exact manner in
which the stole should be crossed. This com-
bination of vestments was also worn at benedic-
tions, at absolution after a mass for the dead,
and, as just remarked, by the assistant at mass
if a priest, and by the celebrant at the mass
of the pre-sanctified. 'The cope,' the rubric tells
us, ' is not strictly a sacerdotal vestment, but it is
worn by the rulers of the choir and others.'

The clergy in choir wear black (choral) copes,
except on principal doubles,* and on the doubles
falling on Sunday, when silk copes of the colour
of the day are worn. On the vigil of Easter, and

^ Feasts were divided into Doubles, Simples, and Sundays.
Doubles were so-called from the anthems being doubled, i.e.,
said throughout at the beginning and end of the Psalms in the
breviary office, instead of the first words only being said.
The principal doubles were Christmas, Epiphany, Easter,
Ascension, Whitsunday, Assumption, the Local Anniversary,
and the Dedication of the Church,

'The Ritual Uses of Vestments, 221

through and on the octave, they wore surplices
only, as also on doubles occurring from Easter to
Michaelmas.

If a bishop celebrate, and if it be Maunday
Thursday, or Whitsunday, he has seven deacons,
seven subdeacons, and three acolytes — on other
doubles only five. On feasts with Rulers, two at
least ; on Good Friday only one. The rulers of
the choir were those whose duty it was to chant
the office and Kyrie at mass, and to superintend
the choristers. On doubles these were four in
number, on simples two. Rulers wore silk copes
of the colour of the day over a surplice, and had
silver staves as emblems of office.

The Roman Pontifical lays down succinct rules
for the vesting of a bishop for the different duties
of his position. These are as follows :

Confirmation. — White cope and stole, amice, rochet, mitra
aurifrigiata.

Ordinations. — As for high mass : colour according to the
day.

Consecration of a Bishop. — The consecrator as for high mass :
colour according to the day ; each of the two assistant-
bishops in rochet, cope, amice, stole, and mitra simplex.

Profession of a Nun. — As for high mass.

Coronation of a Sovereign. — As for high mass : colour
according to day ; each of the assistant-bishops in rochet,
amice, white stole and cope, mitra simplex. In England all
the bishops used to wear full pontificalia.

Laying the Foundation of a Church. — Rochet, amice, white
stole and cope, mitra simplex, pastoral staff.

222 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

Consecration of a Church. — The same till the mass, then
full pontificalia (white).

Reconciliation of a Church. — The same.

Consecration of the Holy Oil on Maun day Thursday. — Full
(white) pontificalia, mitra pretiosa.

j4t a Synod held in a Cathedral Church. — Rochet, amice, red
stole, red cope, mitra pretiosa.

Procession of Palms. — Alb, amice, purple stole, purple cope,
mitra simplex.

Procession of Corpus Christi. — Alb, amice, stole, tunic, dal-
matic, white cope; a mitra pretiosa borne behind. In England
and in France red was the colour.

Rogation Days. — Alb, amice, purple stole, purple cope,
mitra simplex.

In occasional services, such as baptism, a
surplice and stole are worn. At baptisms two
stoles are used, one of violet, which is worn at the
first part of the service, and the other of white,
which is substituted for the first in the course of
the ofiice. This observance has a symbolical
meaning ; violet being the colour which typifies
sin and penitence, and white being associated with
ideas of purity, the change in the stole is
emblematic of the regenerating change which the
rite of baptism is supposed to work. A reversible
stole, violet on one side and white on the other,
is sometimes used for this service. In proces-
sions and benedictions at the altar (/.^., blessings
of wax, images, etc.) the cope must be worn.
In other benedictions stole and surplice are suf-
ficient.

T^he Ritual Uses of Vestments. 223

The cope must also be worn at an absolution
after a mass for the dead ; the colour of the cope
for such a service is black, the ministers lay aside
their dalmatics, and when the celebrant assumes
the cope he must lay aside his maniple. If for
any reason a cope be not obtainable, these rites
(benedictions, absolutions, etc.) must be performed
in alb and crossed stole only, without chasuble or
maniple.

Should it be found necessary to celebrate high
mass without the aid of a deacon or subdeacon,
the Epistle is ordered to be sung by a lector vested
in a surplice.

We must now approach an important branch of
this complex subject — the varieties in the colour of
the vestments depending on the character of the
day, in other words, the liturgical colours of the
vestments.

It does not appear that the definite assigning of
particular colours to particular days is of older
date than Innocent Ill's time ; but before him,
and even as far back as the time of the fathers of
the church, we find that the early Christians had
symbolical associations with colours, which have
formed the foundation on which the elaborate
structure of later times was built.

It is a matter of common knowledge that there
are associations of sentiment and colour which are
practically indissoluble. Black and sorrowful,

224 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

white (or bright) and joyful, are synonymous
terms, and similar expressions are universal.

White^ in the first ten centuries of Christianity,
typified purity and truth. Saints, angels, and Our
Lord are for that reason represented clothed in
white. As we have seen, the earliest vestments
were probably white ; the newly-baptized wore
white during the week after baptism, and the dead
were shrouded in white ; the latter, however,
probably more for convenience than for any sym-
bolic reason.

%ed, the colour of flame, was associated with
ideas of warm, burning love. Our Lord is some-
times represented in red when performing works
of mercy.

Green^ the colour of plants, was regarded as
typifying life, and sacred or beatified persons are
sometimes depicted as clothed in this colour in
reference to their everlasting life. Lastly,

Violet^ which is formed by a mixture of red
and black, was said to symbolize ' the union of
love and pain in repentance.' It also typifies
sorrow, without any reference to sin as its cause ;
thus the Mater Dolorosa is occasionally represented
in a violet robe.*

Further than this we cannot go, and perhaps we
have said too much. It is quite possible that these

* These explanations of colours are taken from Smith and
Cheetham's * Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.'

The Ritual Uses of Vestments. 225

theories may have been put forward to account for
phenomena which depended entirely on the taste
and whim of the painters. It is well known that
in the early ages of Christianity ideas of colour
were vague, and yellow and green, dark blue and
black, light blue and violet, were all regarded as
being the same colour. Previous to the tenth
century, it is quite true that coloured vestments
are to be seen in mosaics and fresco-paintings ;
but the combinations of colours are such as to
leave no doubt that they were simply adopted by
the painter as convenient aids to distinguishing
the various vestments from the surrounding back-
ground and from each other.

Coming now to Innocent III, we find that he
prescribes four liturgical colours, white, red, black
and green. These were the principal or primary
liturgical colours ; but there are others, secondary
to these, which were modifications in tmt of the
primaries. Thus, properly, red is the colour of
martyrs, white the colour of virgins ; but there is
a secondary colour, saffron, for confessors, and the
secondaries, rose and lily, are considered inter-
changeable with red and white.

Hopelessly at variance are the practices through-
out the Western Church, and we will not attempt
to give more than a brief outline of the general
principles For those who desire fuller informa-
tion reference is made to a paper by Dr Wickham

15

226 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

Legg in the first volume of the Transactions of
the St Paul's Ecclesiological Society, in which no
less than sixty-three different ' uses ' are analyzed
and tabulated, or compared.

The rules to which we have just referred are
almost the only regulations respecting which uni-
form use prevails. For obvious reasons, white
is appropriated to feasts of St Mary and of the
other virgin saints ; black is appropriated to the
office of the dead ; and red to the feasts of
martyrs. Usually white is used for Christmas
and Easter, and red for Whitsuntide and Feasts of
Apostles. As a general rule, however, the same
sentimental associations are to be seen with colours
in the middle ages as may possibly be traced in
earlier times : violet being essentially penitential in
its character, red being indicative of fire, blood or
love, white of purity and joy, black of mourning,
Tind green of life. Hence violet is the usual colour
for Advent and Lent, red for feasts of martyrs,
apostles and evangelists, and in some uses for
Passion-tide and Easter ; white for Christmas,
feasts of virgins, Easter, and sometimes Michael-
mas and All Saints ; black for Good Friday and
offices of the dead ; green from the Octave of
Epiphany to Candlemas, and from Trinity to
Advent. The use of the last colour is, however,
very arbitrary ; it only occurs at one or two seasons

The Ritual Uses of Vestments. 227

in the year in each diocese, and these are very
diverse.

The following is the Roman sequence of colours
for the year, and it may be taken as an example
of all:

Advent to Christmas Eve : black or violet.

Christmas Eve, if a Sunday : rose.

Christmas Day : white.

St Stephen : red.

St John the Evangelist : white.

Holy Innocents : violet ; red if a Sunday.

Circumcision : white.

Epiphany : white.

Candlemas : violet for the procession of candles before

mass, then white.
Septuagesima to Maunday Thursday : violet.
Good Friday : black.
Easter : white.
Ascension : white.
Rogation Days : violet.
Pentecost : red.
Trinity Sunday : white.
Corpus Christ! : white.
Trinity to Advent : green.
Feasts of the Virgin Mary : white.
St John Baptist : white.
St Michael : white.
All Saints : white.
Martyrs : red.
Apostles : red.
Evangelists : red.
Confessors : white.

228 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

Virgins : white.
Transfiguration : white.
Holy Cross : red.
Confirmation : white.
Dedication of a Church: white.
Harvest Festivals : white.
Requiem : black.

One or two miscellaneous points may be worth
a passing notice before we bring our account of
the vestments of the Western Church to a close.

During Lent it was the practice to cover up the
images in the church with a curtain called the
velum quadrigesimale. In the Fabric Rolls of
York, for instance, we read the following entry
(Anno 1 518, 1 5 19) :

' Pro coloribus ad pingendum caminos dc novo factos et
pro c fauthoms cordarum pro suspensione pannorum quadri-
gesimalium ante novum crucifixum ivs.

* Pro pictione unius panni pendentis coram novo crucifixo
in tempore quadrigesimali, et pro les curtayn ringes et pro les
laic ac pro suicione alterius panni xiis.'

A point respecting the ring is worth mention.
Doctors of Divinity and bishops only may wear a
ring in the Western Church, and the former must
take it off when celebrating mass.

Besides the Episcopal and Diaconal dalmatic^
there is a third kind, to which allusion must be
made: the Imperial dalmatic, which from time
immemorial has been placed on the sovereigns of
Europe at their coronation.

T^he Ritual Uses of Vestments, 229

The Imperial Dalmatic in the treasury of St
Peter's at Rome is thus described :

* It is laid upon a foundation of deep blue silk, having four
different subjects on the shoulders behind and in front, ex-
hibiting — although taken from different actions — the glorifica-
tion of the body of our Lord. The whole has been carefully
wrought with gold tambour and silk, and the numerous
figures (as many as fifty-four) surrounding our Redeemer,
who sits enthroned on a rainbow in the centre, display
simplicity and gracefulness of design. The field of the
vestment is powdered with flowers and crosses of gold and
silver, having the bottom enriched with a running floriated
pattern. It has also a representation of paradise, wherein
the flowers, carried by tigers of gold, are of emerald green,
turquoise blue, and flame colour. Crosses of silver cantonned
with tears of gold, and of gold cantonned with tears of silver
alternately, are inserted in the flowing foliage at the edge.
Other crosses within circles are also placed after the same
rule, when of gold in medallions of silver, and when of silver
in the reverse order.

* This vestment is assigned to the 12th century. It has
been conjectured that this dalmatic was formerly used by the
German emperors when they were consecrated and crowned,
and when they assisted the pope at the ofiice of mass. On
such occasions the emperor discharged the functions of sub-
deacon or deacon, and, clothed with a dalmatic, chanted the
Epistle and Gospel ; in illustration of this custom it may be
remarked that several of the German Emperors took part in
the service, even so late as Charles V, who sung the Gospel at
Boulogne in 1529. The dalmatic was, in fact, in those times,
as it continues at the present day, both a regal and ecclesiastical
habit, and it has constantly been the custom of European
kingdoms for the sovereigns to wear it at their coronation.'*

* Rev. C. H. Hartshorne in Arch. Journal.

230 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

But the Ecclesiastical nature of the regal costume
of the middle ages does not end with the dalmatic.
Thus, the effigy of Richard I. at Fontevraud wears
a cope-like mantle, a dalmatic, and a white sub-
tunic, answering to the distinctive costumes of
bishop or priest, deacon and sub-deacon respectively.
When the body of Edward I was exhumed at
Westminster in 1774, he was found to wear
among other garments a dalmatic and a stole^
crossed on the breast in the priestly manner. The
body of John, in Worcester, was found in 1797 to
be habited in costume similar to that represented
on his effigy, with the addition of a monk's cowl,
no doubt adopted in order to safeguard his prospects
of future happiness, as death in the monastic habit
was regarded as ensuring a passport to heaven.

The vestments of the Eastern Church are much
simpler, and the rites connected with them have
nothing like the complexity associated with those
of the Western Church. They have but two
colours, for instance — violet for fast-days (including
Lent),* and white for the rest of the year — and
ridicule the elaboration to which liturgical colours
have been brought in the Western Church. This
fact might be indicated, if any disproof of the
existence of a primitive system of liturgical colours
were needed.

* Violet or purple (noi\6.pia are worn throughout Lent,
except on Annunciation Day, Palm Sunday, and Easter Eve.

T^he Ritual Uses of Vestments. 231

The following are the rubrical directions and
prayers used at vesting for the Eucharistic servict
in the Greek Church :

Being then come within the altar [after the procession up the
church^ they [the priest and deacon] make three bows before the
holy table, and kiss the holy gospel and the holy table : then each^
taking his (rroL\dpiov in his hand, makes three bows and s ait h softly
to himself:

O God, purify me, a sinner, and have mercy upon me.

The Deacon comes to the priest, holds his ajoiyo-piov and
dypdptov in his right hand, and bowing down his head to him,
saith :

Bless, sir, the a-roixd.piov and the (LpdpLov.

The priest. Blessed be our God always, now and for ever,
even unto ages of ages.

The deacon then goes apart on one side of the altar ana puts on
his (noi\a.piov, saying :

My soul shall rejoice in the Lord, for He hath put on me
the robe of salvation, and clothed me with the garment of
gladness : as a bridegroom hath He put a crown on my head
and decked me like a bride.

Then, kiising the cjpdptov, he puts it upon his left shoulder.
Then he puts on his kTTip.<xviKio. : putting on that on his right
hand, he saith :

Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorified in strength ; Thy
right hand, O Lord, hath destroyed the enemies, and in the
greatness of Thy glory hast Thou put down the adversaries.

Then, putting the other on his left hand :

Thy hands have made me and fashioned me. O give me
understanding that I may learn Thy commandments.

[He then prepares the sacred vessels.]

The priest puts on his sacred vestments in the following manner.
First, taking up his o-rotxa/otoi/ in his left hand, and making three
bows towards the east, he signs it zvith the sign of the cross, saying:

232 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

Blessed be our God always, etc.

And then he puts it on, saying. My soul shall rejoice, etc., as
the deacon said above.

Next he takes up the CTrcTpaxyj^i-ov, and, blessing it, he saith :

Blessed be God who poureth out His grace on His priests,
like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down unto
the beard, even unto Aaron's beard, and went down to the
skirts of his clothing.

He then takes the ^wvr;, and girding himself therewith, saith :

Blessed be God who hath girded me with strength, and
hath put me in the right way, making my feet like harts'
feet, and hath set me up on high.

He next puts on his eVt/xai^iKta, saying as zvas said above by
the deacon. After which he takes up his k-Kiyov6.riov, if he be of
such dignity as to wear one, and blessing it and kissing it, saith :

Gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most
mighty, according to thy worship and renown. Good luck
have thou with thine honour, ride on because of the word of
truth, of meekness, and righteousness, and thy right hand
shall teach thee terrible things : always, now and for ever,
even unto ages of ages. Amen.

71;en he takes his <f)€\(^viov, and blesses and kisses it, saying :

Let thy priests, O Lord, be clothed with righteousness,
and let thy saints sing with joyfulness : always, now and for
ever, even unto ages of ages. Amen."^

When the vestments are put off after the com-
munion, the priest says Nunc Dimittis, rpiaayiov,
and Paler Nosier.

It does not appear that any complex rules hold
good in the Greek Church respecting the vestments
to be worn on certain days in the Church's year.

* Translation from King's * Rites and Ceremonies of the
Greek Church in Russia.'

The Ritual Uses of Vestments. 233

The following synopsis of the vestment uses in
the ordination service will show most clearly the
nature and distribution of Ecclesiastical vestments
in the Eastern Church.

Ordination of a Reader : A short (^awokiov put
on by the bishop, which is presently removed by
the sub-deacons ; the aroiyapiov is then blessed and
put on by the bishop.

Ordination of a Sub-deacon : The candidate
comes dressed in the aroiy^apiov ; the subdeacons
hand the wpdpiov to the bishop, who signs it on
the cross ; the new sub-deacon kisses the cross and
the bishop's hand, and girds himself with the

(jjpapiov.

Ordination of a Deacon : The candidate kneels
before the altar ; the bishop, at the beginning of
the service, puts the end of the o)/uo(popiov upon
him. After the service the bishop takes the topapiov
and puts it on the new deacon's left shoulder,
saying aSioc, which is repeated thrice by the choir ;
then the bishop gives him the kmiiaviKia, and a^ioc
is repeated as before. The fan (for blowing flies
from the table) is presented after this, with the
same words.

Ordination of a Priest : At the commencement
the candidate kneels at the altar, and the bishop
puts the (oiuo(i>opLov on his head. At the end the
(Jpdpiov is taken from him, and the kirirpayjikiov is
received by the bishop, who kisses it ; the newly-

234 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

ordained priest kisses the vestment and the bishop's
hand ; the bishop puts it on the priest, saying
a&oc, which is repeated as at the ordination of a
deacon. The t^vr) and <^aivo\iov is then conferred
in a similar manner.

Ordination of a Bishop : The new bishop comes
to the service in all his sacred vestments. At the
end the widO(j>6piov is put upon the elect, except
when the consecration takes place in the see of the
bishop, in which case the da/c/cot and the other
episcopal garments are given first. The same
ceremonial is repeated as at the other ordinations.

The vestments worn at the administration of
baptism are the (paivoXiov and e-mfxaviKia.

There are three orders of devotees in the Greek
monasteries. The probationers wear a black
cassock or vest called shaesa^ and a hood (Russian
kamelauch^ yafxaXavyri). The proficients wear, in
addition, an upper cloak [fxdvlvaq). The perfect
are distinguished by their hood or vail, which
perpetually conceals their faces from sight.

APPENDIX I.

COSTUMES OF THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

THE following appendix does not profess to furnish
niore than an outline of the extensive subject
with which it deals; for further details, as well as
for illustrations of members of each of the orders
reference must be made to the great work of Bonann>, cited
A p ndix III. Bonanni names the different ha us rather
loosely ; in the main his nomenclature has been followed, but
brought to a more uniform system.

Monks.

The dress of monks usually consists of the r.Hs, turnc o.

closed gown; the .cpuhr, roughly speakmg, a narrow,

chasuble like dress, with the front and back porttons rec-

;: and of uniform width throughout ; one or more open

gowns it""'"- - '"fP")-' ^"^ *\-^«7- "'1°"^,
astened at the back and capable of bemg ^^^--^"^^

head. 'Discalced- is not always to be taken m us fu lies
Jnificance, or as signifying more than simply san al ■

D fferent vestments are worn by individual orders or ho ses ,

the nature of these will be self-evident from their names.

,. ALEXiANS.-Black vestis and pallium, both reaching a
little below the knee : caputium.

236 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

2. Ambrose, St. — Dark-coloured gown with cappa and
scapular. Discalced.

3. Antonius, St {Armenia). — Ample black tunic, girded,
mantellum, cuculla, and caputium.

4. Antonius, St {Canons of). — Black gown signed with a
blue T ; girded white collar, black mantle, also signed with
T. Others, who are devoted to manual labour, wear a similar
dress, but tawny in colour. The T is a representation of a
crutch, the symbol of sustaining and power.

5. Antonius, St {Egypt). — Black tunic and scapular, with
round caputium. Discalced.

6. Antonius, St {Syria). — Long black gown with short
round caputium, black leather girdle ; over all, long black
mantle,

7. Apostoli. — Tawny tunic with girdle of leather, scapular
with caputium attached. Cappa, and in winter short and
narrow mantellum.

8. Aubert, St {Canons regular of; Cambrai). — Violet
cassock, and cap or biretta : white surplice.

9. Augustine, St. — Black tunic girded, black cape and
hood. White may be worn indoors.

10. Avellanans. — White tunic, scapular, azure pallium,
square biretta in place of mantellum.

11. Basil, St {Armenia). — Tunic and caputium white,
scapular black.

12. Basil, St {Germany). — Tunic, long scapular, long
broad cappa, caputium on shoulder, and a biretta on head in
outline resembling the * Tarn o' Shanter ' cap.

13. Basil, St {Greece). — Black woollen tunic, over which
another with sleeves about three palms wide, open in front,
with woollen fringes or loops of another (but still dark)
colour, which can be fastened with small buttons. Head
always covered with a cap, which conceals the ears. Capu-
tium with vittae or streamers attached, which hang over the
shoulders, and are said to typify the cross.

Costumes of the Religious Orders. 237

14. Basil, St {Italy or Spain). — Till 1443 resembling the
Greek dress (No. 13). After that date, tunic, leather girdle,
scapular, cuculla, caputium^ — all black.

15. Basil, St {Russia). — Like Greece (No. 13), with the
addition of a small cuculla.

16. Benedict, St {St Justina of Padua). — Black woollen
tunic to which a caputium is sewn. Scapular ; cuculla from
shoulder to feet with very wide sleeves.

17. Benedict, St {Clugniacs). — Black cappa clausa with
rude sleeves or hood.

18. Benedict, St {India). — Black tunic somewhat short,
white scapular, mantle, and caputium.

19. Bethlehemites. — Black woollen tunic with leather
girdle ; cappa, on left side of which a pannula with a repre-
sentation of the manger at Bethlehem. Discalced. Black
cap on head.

20. BiRGiTTA, St. — Gray tunic and cuculla, to which a
caputium is sewn, gray mantellum, signed with red cross,
having a white roundle or plate at the centre.

21. Caelestines. — White, black caputium and scapular.

22. Camaldulenses {Hermits). — White woollen tunic,
scapular and round caputium ; cuculla (also white) in
service. Black shoes.

23. Camaldulenses (M^///^j). — As Benedictines, but white,
and the scapular is girded round the loins. Tunic with very
wide sleeves, caputium, etc.

24. Capuchins. — Rough black woollen tunic girded with
coarse rope ; hood and cape. Discalced.

25. Carmelites. — Tunic, girdle, scapular, caputium,
brown ; cappa or mantle white. Hat on head black, except
in Mantua, where it is white.

26. Carmelites a Monte Sacro. — Cappa shorter than
that of the other Carmelites, and no cap on head at any
time.

238 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

27. Carthusians. — Black woollen pallium, over which
white gown passed over the head, and scapular with side
loops.

28. Cistercians. — Benedict XII decreed brown as the
Cistercian colour ; but there was an uncertainty as to the
interpretation of this decree ; some, alleging that gray or
black were included in the term * brown,' wore those colours.
To remedy this confusion, Sixtus IV decreed black or white :
black caputium and scapular girded round loins ; black
cuculla added out of doors. In choir white.

29. Cistercians {Fogliantino). — Like the Benedictines in
shape, white in colour. Formerly discalced everywhere, now
only in France. Black wooden sandals worn in Italy.

30. Cistercians [La Trappe). — White cuculla with ample
sleeves, girded ; caputium.

31. Chariton, St. — Lion-coloured tunic, with black
cuculla and caputium.

32. Choors {Canons regular of; Bordeaux). — White
woollen vestis, white linen scapular ; linen cotta in choir.
Almuce, worn over the arms in summer, round the neck in
winter.

33. CoLORiTi {Calabria). — Long tunic, with round capu-
tium and mantellum from rough black natural wool ; woollen
girdle.

34. CoLUMBA, St {Avellana). — White woollen tunic or
caputium, over which a scapular ; a narrow pallium added
out of doors.

35. Cross, St {Canons regular of; Coimbra). — Cassock,
surplice, and almuce ; the ordinary canonical dress.

36. Crucifers {Italy). — Blue tunic (formerly ash-coloured,
or uncertain), scapular, and hood. Silver cross constantly
borne in the hand.

37. Crucifers {Belgium). — White tunic, scapular, and
caputium ; black mozetta, signed in front with a red and
white cross.

Costumes of the 'Religious Orders, 239

38. Crucifers [Lusitania). — Blue tunic, over which gown,
mozetta and hood. A pallium added out of doors.

39. Crucifers (Syria). — Black.

4.0. DiONYSius, St (Canons regular of; Rheims). — Long
surplice, over which (in winter) a cappa clausa without arm-
holes. Biretta. Almuce worn over arm.

41. Dominic, St. — Tunic, scapular, and broad round
caputium of white wool. Black cappa, shorter than the
tunic, added out of doors.

42. FoNTis Ebraldi {Fontevraud). — Black tunic girded,
scapular, caputium.

43. Francis, St. — Ash-coloured tunic girded with a cord
divided by three knots ; round caputium and mozetta.

44. Francis, St (de observantia). — Woollen tunic girded
with cord ; cape, hood ; colour formed by mixture of two
parts of black wool to one of white. Discalced, in wooden
or leathern sandals.

45. Franciscans {of St Peter of Alcantara). — Rough and
patched tunic girded with cord ; cape and hood. Feet
entirely unprotected.

46. Francis de Paul, St (Fratres minimi). — Woollen tunic,
dark tawny colour with round caputium, whose ends hang
below the loins before and behind, both girded by a rope, the
free end of which is knotted with five knots (novices knot
three knots only). Pallium reaching a little below the knees,
worn in winter both indoors and out. Formerly discalced,
with sandals of various materials ; afterwards, however, this
practice was dispensed with.

47. Genovefa, St (Canons regular of). — White vestis and
rochet, black biretta, fur almuce over left arm. In winter a
long black pallium is added to the vestis and rochet, and a
black caputium or hood.

48. George in Alga, St (Canons regular of). — Cassock,
over which a blue gown.

49. Gilbert, St (Canons regular of). — Black cassock and

240 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

hood, and surplice lined with lamb's wool. Linen cappa
added at service.

50. Gramontans. — Any dress, very rough. The * re-
formed ' dress is a rough w^hite linen tunic, over which
another, thinner, of black ; scapular and caputium.

51. Hermits {Egypt). — Tawny tunic, black pallium.

52. HippoLYTus, St {Brothers of Mercy of). — Brownish
tunic, scapular, hood.

53. HuMiLiATi. — White tunic, scapular, mantle, cape, and
cap.

54. James, St {Canons regular of; Spada). — White woollen
vestis and rochet.

55. Jerome, St {Hermits of). — White woollen tunic,
scapular with round caputium, cappa open in front : all
black wool.

56. Jerome, St {Hermits of; foundation of Lupo Olmedo). —
White tunic girt with black leather girdle round loins; small
round caputium and tawny cuculla. Black biretta worn at
home.

57. Jerome, St {Hermits of ; foundation of Peter Gambacortd).
— Tawny tunic girded with leather girdle, tawny crimped
cappa, round and narrow caputium, square black biretta.

58. Jerome, St {Fiesole). — Tawny woollen vestis with
crimped cappa open in front. Leather girdle. Discalced ;
wooden sandals, afterwards abandoned.

59. Jesuati. — White tunic, square caputium, gray cappa
(after 1367). A white appendage, like a sleeve, worn instead
of caputium, changed by Urban VIII for a caputium of the
same colour as the mantle.

60. JoHANNis Dei, St. — Dark ash -coloured tunic with
scapular reaching to knees -,* round, pointless caputium.
Black cap added out of doors.

* So Bonanni's text ; it reaches to x.h.Q feet in his plate.

Costumes of the Religious Orders, 241

61. John, St {Canons regular of; Chartres). — White vestis
and rochet ; almuce over left shoulder.

62. John, St [Hermits of, de Poenitentia), — Rough woollen
cloth, tunic and cappa with hood, feet entirely unprotected,
heavy wooden cross suspended in front from neck.

63. John Baptist, St {Canons regular of; England^. — Black
or brown vestis, scapular, cappa clausa, and mantle, all signed
with a black cross.

64. Klosterneuburg {Canons regular of; Austria). — White
surplice and black cappa, for which latter an almuce is sub-
stituted on festival days.

65. LiRiNENSEs {Lerina Island, Tuscany). — Tunic and mantle
girded with scarf, over this sleeved cappa aperta with small
caputium : all black.

6^. Lo, St {Canons regular of; Rouen). — Violet cappa,
violet mozetta or cape, and hood in winter ; white cassock
and rochet.

67. Macharius, St {Egypt). — Violet tunic, black scapular,
small cuculla ; cap on head covering hair, forehead, temples,
and ears.

68. Mark, St {Canons regular of; Mantua). — White woollen
vestis, rochet, pallium, for which latter a mozetta is substituted
in choir and a white biretta added. Sheepskin almuce on
left arm.

69. Martin, St {Esparnai \_Aspreniacum, Campanid\). —
Vestis talaris of white, above which a sarrocium or scor-
ligium, which is a species of rochet, described by Mau-
burnus.*

* Cit. ap, Bonanni, vol. iv. No. xvii : Quidam enim
subtile integrum cum manicis integris habent, quidam autem
deferunt hanc lineam vestem in formam longi et lati scapu-
laris sine manicis in lateribus apertam quidam circa tibia ad
latitudinem palmae Carthusiensium more consutam, alii scapu-
lare latum cum rugis habent aliis est forma parvi scapularis
ctbrevis cum rugis et plicis e collo pendentis quod Scorligium

16

242 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

70. Mary, St {de Mercede Redemptionis Captivorum). —
White tunic, scapula, short caputium, and cappa. A small
shield bearing party per fess in chief gules a cross pattee argevt
in base three pallets (the base charge is the arms of the
Kingdom of Arragon), is worn in front.

71. Mary, St {de Mercede Redemptionis Captivorum^ another
dress). — In this the caputium is prolonged and the feet
discalced.

72. Mary, Sr {Servants of). — Coarse tunic, scapular, cappa
and hood : all black.

73. Maurice, St {Canons regular of). — Cassock, rochet,
purple cape or mozetta, biretta.

74. Monte Luca {Hermits of). — Tunic, short chasuble-
like scapular, mantle and hood and cap or hat, the latter
optional ; all tawny colour. Some are discalced, others with
shoes or sandals.

75. Monte Senario {Hermits of). — Black tunic, scapular,
pallium extending below knees, caputium.

76. Monte Vergine {in Avellina ; ?nonks of). — Tunic,
scapular, and cucuUa ; out of doors pallium and cap sub-
stituted for cuculla. All white.

77. Olivetans. — White vestis with wide sleeves, caputium
crispatum on shoulder.

78. Pachomius, St. — White woollen tunic and cuculla, the
latter signed with a violet cross.

79. Pamplona {Canons regular of). — Cassock, alb, sleeveless
rochet, ash-coloured mozetta.

80. Paul, St {Hermits). — White woollen vestis, rather
short, with short mantellum over, and short caputium ;
discalced.

81. Paul, St {Monks). — White tunic sleeved, caputium.

dicunt quibusdam ex latere linea hasta aliis area collum pecia
linea.

Costumes of the Religious Orders. 243

and collar round shoulders. Out of doors, black cap and
cloak (white in Hungary).

82. Peter, St {Canons regular of; Monte Corbulo). — At first
gray cassock and rochet, and almuce or caputium ; after
1 52 1 black cassock, white-sleeved rochet, and black cloak.

83. Poland (Canons regular ^).— White tunic and linen
surplice reaching to about the knees, fur almuce about
shoulders, dark-coloured skull-cap of wool edged with fur.

84. Portugal {Canons regular of). — White rochet and
tunic, tawny almuce, and pallium.

85. Premonstratensians. — White tunic and scapular, sewn
up in front, white sleeveless cappa without girdle, white
biretta, almuce, white shoes. (The white is all natural^ not
dyed.)

86. Rouen {Canons regular of the Priory of the Two Lovers).
—White tunic or alb and rochet, almuce.

87. RuFus, St {Canons regular of; France). — White cassock
buttoned up in front, white girdle, black biretta.

88. Sabba, St. — Tawny tunic girded, with black scapular.
Discalced.

89. Saviour, St {Canons regular of; Laterans). — White
buttoned cassock, linen rochet. Out of doors black pallium
and biretta.

90. Saviour, St {Canons regular of ; Lorraine). — Black tunic
with little linen rochet hanging down from the neck to the left
side, five inches broad, like a girdle, over which in choir a cotta,
and gray almuce carried on the arm in summer ; in winter
a full sleeveless rochet with cappa reaching to the ankles
of black linen, whose front edges are decorated with red
cloth about a foot wide. Caputium, whose front edge sur-
rounds the face like an almuce, with fur about two inches
wide.

91. Saviour, St {Canons regular of; Syha Lacus Selva). —
White woollen tunic, rochet and scapular, black cappa.

92. Sepulchre, the Holy {Canons regular of). — White

244 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

rochet, black cappa and caputium. At the left side of the
cappa a Greek cross cantoned by crosslets in red.

93. Sepulchre, the Holy {Canons regular of; Bohemia^
Poland, Russia). — Black vestis and rochet, over which a man-
telletum — a waistcoat or rochet-like vestment, sleeveless,
but rather long, open in front, and reaching to a little above
the knees — on the left side of which a double-transomed
cross.

94. Sylvester, St. — Tunic, caputium, scapular, cuculla of
blue. Biretta worn on sacred occasions.

95. Trinitatis, SS {Redemptionis Captivorum). — White
tunic, scapular, and cappa, with red and blue cross flory
on the scapular and left side of the cappa.

96. Trinitatis, SS {Redemptionis Captivorum; Spain). —
Cappa brown, otherwise as above described. By others in
Spain a tawny cappa is worn, and the feet are discalced.
Round black caputium added.

97. Trinitatis, SS {Redemptionis Captivorum ; France). —
All white, the cross plain ; feet discalced ; caputium also
white.

98. UsETz {Canons regular of). — White buttoned tunic and
surplice, extinguisher-shaped, like the ancient chasuble.

99. Valle de Choux {Burgundy, ietween Dijon and
Autun, Canons regular of). — White, black scapular, girded
with black girdle.

100. Valle Ronceaux {Canons regular of). — Black, with
white scapular, very small, and resembling archiepiscopal pall.
Black cappa added in service.

1 01. Valle di Scholari {Canons regular of). — White
woollen tunic and scapular ; black cappa lined with lamb's
wool, biretta.

102. Valley of Jehoshaphat {Canons regular of). — Full
red cuculla and caputium.

103. Vallis Viridis (;?-f^r Brussels; Canons regular of). —
Black tunic and cassock, white rochet, black caputium.

Costumes of the Religious Orders, 245

104. Vallumbrosans. — Identical with the Sylvestrines, but
grayish-black instead of blue.

105. Victor, St, Without the Walls (Canons regular
of; Paris). — White tunic and wide-sleeved surplice, almuce,
biretta.

106. ViNDESHEiM (Canons regular of). — White tunic and
rochet, biretta, fur almuce added on shoulders in winter.

107. William, St (Hermits of). — Tunic, over which
another sleeveless, girded. Scapular, feet entirely unpro-
tected. At first white, but black after union with the
Augustinians.

Nuns.

The dress o^ nuns, as a general rule, consists of a vestis
(gown or tunic), girt at the waist, and a scapular. To these
various orders add pallia, mantella^ etc., as will appear from
the following list. Asa general rule, a white^r^^Tz/Wor breast-
cloth is fastened over the head and round the throat and breast ;
over this two loose vela or cloths are placed on the head, the
inner white, the outer black. The feet, even of *discalced '
nuns, are protected at least by wooden, bark, or leathern
sandals ; very rarely are the feet entirely unprotected.

1. AcEMETAE (or VigHants). — Uncertain; according to
some authorities, green vestis, signed with a red cross, above
which a mantellum or cape. Black velum on head.

2. Agnes, St (Dordrecht), — White vestis and scapular, black
velum on head, ruff round neck.

3. Ambrose, St. — White, black velum on head.

4. Angelica, St (Milan). — White vestis and scapular, cross
on breast, ring on finger, with cross in place of a jewel.

5. Antonius, St (Syria). — No definite rule, any dress suit-
able to monastic life.

6. AvGVSTi'tiE^^T (Solitaries of 1256). — Black; Gregory IX
gave licence to wear white, with black scapular and velum on
head.

246

Ecclesiastical Vestments.

7. Augustine, St {ancient habit). — Black tunic, white linen
rochet, on head a cloth, ornamented with semee of red
crosses, reaching down the back like a cloak or cope.

8. Augustine, St (discalced ; Spain). — Similar to the corre-
sponding monks, but with the usual vela on the head.

9. Augustine, St (discalced ; Lusitania). — White vestis (to
which a black vestis is added on feast days) girded with black
leather girdle, white scapular, black mantellum ; on the head
a rough white linen cloth hanging before the face to the eyes,
but behind to the waist. On this white cloth another, black,
about five palms in breadth.

10. Augustine, St {Penitents of). — Black vestis and cappa,
reaching to knees ; scapular white ; face covered with a
black veil.

11. Augustine, St {Venice). — White ; black veil on face.

12. Basil, St {Eastern). — Natural (undyed) black dress;
black mafors (narrow scapular-like pallium) ; gloves or
sleeves covering the arms and hands as far as the fingers ;
black velum covering the whole head.

13. Basil, St {Western). — As in the East till 1560. After
that date, black vestis, scapular and velum reaching from head
to knees ; black gremial or breast-cloth. A cassock with
ample sleeves added for church services.

14. Begga, St {Antwerp). — Black vestis, black pallium
from head downwards, a cap (biretta), resembling in outline
an inverted saucer, on head white velum round head and
across breast.

15. Benedict, St. — As monks, but with velum in place of
caputium.

16. Benedict, St {de Monte Cahario). — White tunic and
scapular, with black velum on head. Discalced.

17. BiRGiTTA, St. — White camisia, gray tunic, cuculla with
sleeves reaching to tip of middle finger, gray mantellum. On
the head a * garland ' or 'wreath* concealing the forehead
and cheeks, and secured at the back of the head by a pin

Costumes of the 'Religious Orders. 247

On this is placed a black velum fastened by three pins, one on
the forehead and one over each ear. Above this is a corona of
white cloth consisting of a Greek cross passing over the head
from forehead to back and from ear to ear, the ends joined
by a circle that passes round the temples. At each of the
intersections of the cross arms with each other and with the
circle is fastened a small piece {gutta) of red cloth — the total
of five doubtless typical of the Five Wounds.

18. Caesarius, St. — White vestis, girded ; black velum on
head.

19. Calatiavans. — White; white scapular signed with red
cross flory, usual white and black vela on head.

20. Camaldulenses. — White ; scapular confined with white
girdle ; usual vela on head.

21. Canonesses regular {Belgium, Lorraine, ^ic). — White
tunic girt at waist, mantle over ; black velum on head ; a
rochet is worn in some houses.

22. Canonesses regular [Rouen). — Originally white ; now
black tunic, black mantellum lined and edged with white
mouse-fur ; black and white vela disposed as usual on head.

23. Canonesses (Mons). — Black vestis with white sleeves ;
black velum on head reaching down back half-way ; pallium
or mantle on shoulder hanging to ground, black lined with
white. In church service the dress consists of white linen
surplice or cassock reaching to feet, braided with a cord sewn
upon it arranged in ornamental knots and scrolls ; peaked
head-dress, from the point of which hangs a long pendant
streamer. Pallium or mantle of black silk, lined with mouse-
fur, white with black spots.

24. Capuchins. — Rough woollen vestis, scapular, man-
tellum, white gremial cloth, black and white vela on head.

25. Carmelites (ancient). — Tawny tunic, short white
pallium or mantle, white velum encircling head.

26. Carmelites (modern). — Tawny tunic and scapular,
white pallium reaching to feet, usual vela on head.

248 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

27. Carmelites (^France). — Brown habit, white mantellum
lined with fur, white gremial cloth covering head and breast,
black velum above this.

28. Carmelites (discaiced). — Like ordinary Carmelites,
but with somewhat long cappa of coarse cloth ; two black
vela on head ; feet shod with woollen cloth and bark
sandals.

29. Carthusians. — White tunic and scapular; cloth on
neck and breast, usual velamina on head.

30. Cassian. — White tunic and linen rochet, with black
velum on head.

31. Cistercians. — White ; gray (sometimes black) scapu-
lar, girded ; in choir a white cuculla added.

32. Clugniacs. — Black tunic, girded ; ample scapular, also
black ; usual vela on head.

33. Columbanus, St. — White tunic, cuculla, gremial
cloth, and velum on head.

34. Cross, St {Penitents of). — White tunic, over which
another, black, girded with leather girdle. White gremial
cloth and velum.

35. Dominic, St. — White vestis, girded; scapular; black
and white vela on head. In choir or at the Sacrament a
cappa is added.

36. Dominic, St {Penitents of). — White tunic and scapular ;
white gremial cloth and velum, over which a flowing black
pallium is placed which hangs down to the feet.

37. Eligius, St. — Black tunic, white mantle, white gremial
cloth on head and breast, over which black velum.

38. FoNTEVRAUD. — Black tunic, white gremial and velum.

39. FoNTEVRAUD {reformed). — Black pallium added to
previous dress.

40. Francis of Assisi, St. — Rough tunic girt with a rope,
scapular and mantellum ; white gremial cloth. Discaiced ;
feet in wooden sandals.

41. Fructuosus, St. — Cuculla, pallium, and tunic, all

Costumes of the Religious Orders. 249

gray ; girdle securing tunic black. Discalced (sandals worn
in summer, shoes in winter).

42. Genovefa, St [Canonesses ./).— White tunic and sur-
plice, black fur ' almutia,' ornamented with white spots, worn
at se'rvice over left arm (something like a long maniple).
White gremial cloth, and black velum over it on head.

43. Gilbert, St.— Black tunic, mantle, and hood, the last
lined with lamb's wool.

44. Hilary, St.— Gray tunic, not long, over which a short
tawny pallium ; black velum on head, with white band round
forehead ; shoes with pointed toes turned upward.

45. Hospitalers of St John of Jerusalem. — Tawny
tunic with white cross sewn on breast. White velum on head.

46. Hospitalers of St John of Jerusalem {France).—
Black vestis signed with a white cross fourchee ; pallium with
similar cross on left shoulder ; white and black vela on head.
Fastened to the pallium a rosary divided into eight parts,
symbolical of the instruments of the Passion.

47. Hospitalers (C^;/.;/m./,- P^nV).— White vestis, linen
rochet, pallium from shoulders to feet, usual vela on head.

48. Hospitalers of the Holy Ghost (5^;r.;.j).— Black
vestis, with double-transomed cross fourchee in white on the
left side of breast. Usual vela on head.

49. HuMiLiATi (M/^;^).-White tunic girded ; loose white
scapular ; white velum.

50. Infant Jesus, Virgins of.— Woollen vestis of dark
tawny colour. On certain days black velum on head reach-
ing nearly to feet.

51. Isidore, St. — Uncertain ; probably gray tunic and

cappa with hood. Discalced.

52. James, St, de Spatha.— Black vestis with red cross
flory fichee on the right on the breast. White cappa reach-
ing to feet. Usual vela on head.

53. Jerome, St. — White tunic, gray scapular, black
pallium, black velum on head.

250 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

54. Jesuatae. — White tunic and brown scapular ; cappa
of the same colour added at service. Usual vela on head.

55. Lateran Canonesses Regular. — White tunic and
rochet ; white gremial cloth over head and breast, over
which black velum. A wide-sleeved surplice added for
service.

56. Laurence, St {Venice). — Black vestis with white velum
on head, not altogether covering the hair. A long flowing
cassock added for a service-robe, and a long black velum
placed over the white velum.

57. Macharius, St. — Tawny vestis with black cappa, or a
sheepskin over it.

58. Malta, Knights of. — Black tunic and scapular, black
pallium, very long and supported over the arms to keep it
from the ground ; white Maltese cross on left shoulder of
pallium. Black and white silk chain hanging from neck
supporting wooden images of the instruments of the Passion.

59. Maria, St, in Capitolio {Canonesses of). — Silk vestis,
above which a white rochet. Head covered with long black
velum reaching to ground. At first a crimped, rufF-like collar
round the neck ; this was afterwards abandoned.

60. Maria Fuliensis, St. — Rough white vestis ; white
gremial cloth on head and breast, loosely covered with black
velum. Discalced.

61. Mary the Virgin, St, Annunciation of. — Gray tunic,
white chlamys or cloak, red cross-shaped scapular, usual head
coverings.

62. Mary the Virgin, St, Annunciation of {another order).
— White vestis, black girdle, white scapular, blue gown, white
gremial on head and breast, black velum.

63. Mary the Virgin, St, Assumption of. — Blue, secured
with white girdle, white scapular, white gremial cloth, white
velum (very long) on head. In choir a pallium of mixed
silk and blue wool is added.

64. Mary the Virgin, St {Canonesses regular of). — Black

Costumes of the Religious Orders. 251

tunic, over which a long black cappa is girded in choir ;
usual gremial cloth and vela.

65. Mary the Virgin, St, Daughters of {Cremona). —
Black. Resembling the habit of the priests of the Society of
Jesus, but u^ith black velum in place of biretta. An extra
black velum and an extra black mantle is added out of doors.

66. Maria, Sta {de Mercede Redemptionis Captivorum). —
White vestis and scapular ; usual vela on head. In centre of
breast a shield bearing party per fess in chief gules a cross
pattee argent, in base three pallets.

6j. Mary the Virgin, St, Servants of. — Same as corre-
sponding monks, with velum instead of caputium. In
Germany certain of this order wear a white velum with a
blue star on the forehead.

68. Mary the Virgin, St, Seven Sorrows of. — Black
woollen vestis and girdle, head and breast with white linen
covering, long black head-covering put on out of doors.

69. Mary the Virgin, St, Purification of. — Simple black
vestis, white collar and cuffs, black velum on head — much
like ordinary mourning dress.

70. Mary the Virgin, St, Visitation of. — Black vestis,
pectoral cross of silver with figure and monogram of Christ.
Usual vela on head.

71. Mary of the Rosary, St. — Black ; image of the Con-
ception, surrounded by a rosary embellished with figures of
the instruments of the Passion, on breast ; white gremial
cloth and white velum on head.

72. Olivetans. — White cuculla and tunic ; usual vela on
head.

73. Pachomius, St. — Black tunic and gray hood ; a row of
small white Greek crosses along every edge.

74. Philippines of Rome. — Black woollen tunic, white
sleeveless surplice with black cross in centre. Usual vela on
head.

75. Premonstratensians. — White vestis and pallium, white

252 Ecclesiastical Vestments,

scapular girded. On the forehead a cross signed on the white
velum.

76. Peter of Alcantaria, St (Solitaries of), — Rough vestis
girded with a rope ; scapular, mantle, and velum. No cover-
ing on head.

yj. Sacrament, Adoration of the Most Holy. — Black
vestis, black velamen over head and shoulders, golden figure
of the Host on breast.

78. Mary the Virgin, St, Presentation of. — Black,
white scapular, usual vela on head signed with cross in the
centre of the forehead.

79. Sepulchre, Canonesses of the Holy. — Black tunic,
over which a white sleeveless surplice reaching to knees.
Usual vela on head. Mantellum, on the left shoulder of
which is a double transomed cross in red. To the left side
are two ropes sewn, knotted together by five knots to typify
the Five Wounds,

80. Stephen, St. — White woollen vestis and scapular with
red cross fourchee on breast. Usual vela on head. In choir
a white cuculla is added with full sleeves of red silk.

81. Sylvester, St. — Similar to monks, but with usual vela
on head.

82. Trinitatis, SS {Redemptionis Captivorum), — White
vestis and scapular, black pallium. On pallium and scapular
a red and blue Greek cross fourchee. Usual vela.

83. Trinity, Most Holy. — White tunic and scapular,
tawny cappa signed with Greek cross fourchee in red and
blue. Similar cross on scapular. Black sandals.

84. Urbanists. — Blackish vestis and scapular, tawny man-
tellum at service, white gremial cloth, white and black vela
on head.

85. Ursula, St. — Black vestis girded with cord, white
gremial cloth, long black velum on head.

86. Ursula, St {Rome). — Woollen vestis of mingled black
and violet, with black tunic fastened by black leather

Costumes of the Religious Orders, 253

girdle. Usual vela on head, the black one reaching to the
knees.

87. Ursula, St {Parma). — Black vestis, very long dark
violet pallium, the hem girt up in the girdle, and that part
over the head concealing the eyes,

88. Vallumbrosanae. — As monks, but with black cuculla
usual vela on head.

89. MiNisTRANTES Infirmis [Belgium). — Black dress and
scapular ; white velum over head and shoulders.

90. MiNisTRANTEs Infirmis {Libumi). — Blue dress with
long and wide sleeves, white velaraen over head and breast,
another white velamen loose on head girded with rope round
waist.

91. Sacrament, Poor Virgins of the Holy. — Woollen
tawny tunic girt with rope. White velamen on head.

Mediaeval University Costume.

The details here given respecting mediaeval university
costume are abridged from a long and exhaustive paper by
Prof. E. C. Clark in vol. 50 of the Archaeological Journal.

There is no doubt that the university dress of the middle
ages is an adaptation of monastic costume. The original
schools from which the universities were developed were of
a clerical character, and their members wore clerical dress.
The dress of the mediaeval universities was international,
unlike the costume worn to-day ; hence the following
account, while primarily concerned with the English uni-
versities, will serve as a description of Continental university
dress as well.

The system of degrees was developed in France by the
end of the thirteenth century. There were four grades :
first, the ordinary scholar or undergraduate ; then the
determinant ; thirdly the licentiate ; and fourthly the master,
professor or doctor. The undergraduate resided, attended
lectures, and argued on questions in the schools ; the

254 Ecclesiastical Vestments.

determinant 'determined' or decided on questions upon which
he had previously merely argued ; the licentiate received
the chancellor's * licence ' to incept {i.e.y take the steps
necessary for obtaining the master's degrees), to lecture, and
to dispute in school exercises. The mastership w^as the
highest grade, and it included the regent, who was engaged
in teaching, and the non-regent, who had ceased to teach.
From the second grade probably sprung the baccalaureat ; the
bachelor was at first a kind of supernumerary teacher, whose
lectures were probably recognised only within his own
university.

The robes are thus described :

1. Toga or roba talaris, the simplest and most general
form of university dress, probably originally derived from
the Benedictine habit. It was full and flowing, open in
front, with wide sleeves through which the arms passed their
whole length. Subsequent modifications curtailed the sleeves
for undergraduates (retaining the fuller form for mourning),
and (in England) introduced distinctive marks for the various
colleges. The modern Bachelor and Master of Arts gown is
derived from this dress combined with other garments. In
certain colleges in Oxford it was directed to be sewn up
from the wearer's middle to the ground. In Clare Hall,
Cambridge, fellows were permitted to line it with fur. Gona
and Epitogium, which we meet with in certain mediaeval
statutes, are probably synonyms of this.

2. Hood. The hood {^caputium) was originally the head-
covering in bad weather ; it was afterwards dropped on the
shoulders, and then assumed the form of a small cape. A
large tippet is sometimes seen beneath this cape in representa-
tions of academical costume. The Undergraduate's or Scholar^s
hood was black, not lined, and to it a longliripipe or streamer
was sewn at the back ; the Graduate's was furred or lined,
with a short liripipe. The various degrees were indicated
by differences of lining ; bachelors wore badger's fur or lamb's

Mediaeval University Costume. 255

wool ; licentiates and regents wore minever or some more
expensive fur ; non-regents wore silk. When the under-
graduates abandoned hoods (before sixteenth century ; exact
date uncertain) they became a distinctive mark of the attain-
ment of a degree.

The liripipe was also called tipetum or cornetum. The
latter may be the origin of the French cornette, a silk band
formerly worn by French doctors of law, and a possible origin
for the modern English scarf. The word liripipe is also used
to denote pendant false sleeves, and also the tails of long-
pointed shoes. This, however, lies rather in the region of
everyday costume. In 1507, at Oxford, we find typet or
cornetum used to denote an alternative for the toga talaris
allowed to Bachelors of Civil Law. This is clearly not the
tail of a hood, but its exact significance is uncertain.

3. Mantellum. The origin and meaning of this word are
alike uncertain. The use o^ ' mantelli ov liripipia^ commonly
called typets,' was prohibited to fellows and scholars of
Magdalen College, Oxford, by a statute dated 1479, except
injirmitatis causa. From this we may infer that the mantellus
(also called mantella or mantellut?i) was something akin to
the liripipe. In another notice (1239) they are coupled with
cappae : certain riotous clerks had to march in a penitential
procession * sine cappis et mantellis.^ Prof. Clark infers from
these passages and from other sources that the academical
mantellum 'is not a hood, but is worn either instead of, or in
addition to, the hood, with the cope, or else instead of the
cope or long tabard.'

4. Cassock, This was at one time worn by all members of
universities under their gowns. Doctors of divinity,
doctors of laws, cardinals, and canons wore scarlet.
Certain days at present are called * Scarlet Days ' in the
English universities, on which doctors in all faculties wear
scarlet. This may be a survival of the ancient scarlet cassock.

5. Surplice. ^ A dress of ministration, used in college

256 Ecclesiastical Vest?nents.

chapels by non-ministrants, more as a matter of college
discipline than as academical costume.'

6. Almuce. Distinctive of masters and doctors, distinct
from the hood. Another possible origin of the English hood.

7. Cope. There were two kinds of cope in use at the
English universities — the cappa manicata or sleeved cope ;
and an uncomfortable contrivance called the cappa clausa,
which was sewn all the way up, passed over the head when
put on, and was not provided with sleeves or other openings
for the arms save a short longitudinal slit in front The
Archbishop of Canterbury prescribed this as a decent garb
for Archdeacons, Deans and Prebendaries in 1222. Regents
in arts, laws, and theology were permitted to lecture in a
cappa clausa ox pallium only. The cappa manicata was probably
worn generally, as being a sober and dignified dress ; it very
rarely occurs in contemporary representations.

8. The tabard or colcbium was a sleeveless gown closed
in front ; but ultimately it was slit up, the sleeves of the
gown proper were transferred to it, and the use of the latter
discontinued. All not yet bachelors were required by the
statutes of Trinity Hall, Cambridge (1352), to wear long
tabards, while Clare Hall, the adjoining foundation, required
its Master (Head), masters, and Bachelor Fellows to wear
this and other robes, in 1359. Kings' Hall (13S0) required
every scholar to wear a rcba talaris, and ever}' bachelor a
robe with tabard suited to his degree.

9. University Head-dress. A skull-cap was early allowed to
ecclesiastics to protect the tonsured head in cold weather,
and, except the ordinary hood, this is the only head-dress
recognised by the early university statutes. This pileus,

however, soon assumed a pointed shape, thus , ^ n and in

this form was recognised as part of the insignia of the
doctorate ; doctors only are represented wearing it upon
monuments. The central point developed afterwards into
the modern tassel. Bachelors wore no official head-dress.

Index of Sy?ionymous Terms. 257

APPENDIX II.

AN INDEX OF SYNONYMOUS TERMS.

Alba (Lat.), alb.
A.vaSoXdbLov (Gk.), amice.
Anabolagium (Lat.), amice.
XvafSoXalov (Gk.), amice.
Anagolaium (Lat.), amice.
Aurifrigium (Lat.), orphrey.
Baltheus (Lat.), girdle.
Bitarshil (Copt.), stole.
Caligae (Lat.), stockings.
Cambo (Lat.), pastoral staff.
Cambutta (Celto-Lat.), head

of pastoral staff.
Campagi (Lat.), stockings.
Cappa (Lat.), cope.
Capuita (Lat.), pastoral staff.
Cassacca (Lat.), cassock.
')(^afiaX.av\Lov (Gk.) = X^H-^'

Xavxi^
Chirothecae (Lat.), gloves.
Chrysoclave (O.-Eng., from

Lat.), orphrey.
Cingulum (Lat.), girdle.
Clappe (O.-Eng.), pastoral

staff.
Cleykstaff (O.-Eng.), pastoral

staff.
Cleystaff (O.-Eng.), pastoral

staff.
Cruche (O.-Eng.), pastoral

staff.

Ephod (Lat., from Heb.),

amice.
k-LjiavLKa (Gk.), maniples.
€77Lfj.avLKLa (Gk.), maniples.
i-LTpax'i]Xiov (Gk.), stole.
Faino (Syr.), chasuble.
Fanon [a), (Lat.), maniple.
Fanon [b), (Lat.), orale.
Ferula (Lat.), pastoral staff.
Fourevre (Fr.), mozetta.
Humerale (Lat.), amice.
Hure (O.-Eng.), ecclesiastical

skull-cap.
Jabat (Copt.), alb.
Kerchure (O.-Eng.), amice.
Koutino (Syr.), alb.
Manicae (Lat.), gloves.
fxavLKia (Gk.), maniples.
Mantile (Lat.), maniple.
Mappula (Lat.), maniple.
ujpdpLov (Gk.), stole.
Orarium (Lat.), stole.
Oururo (Syr.), stole.
Pedum (Lat.), pastoral staff.
TrepLTpdxrjXi (Gk,), stole.
7repLrpaxi)XL0v (Gk.), stole.
(^aiXovLOv (Gk.), chasuble.
(^aivoXi (Gk.), chasuble.
(^aivoXiov (Gk.), chasuble.
(^aKeuiXiov (Gk.), stole.

17

258

Ecclesiastical Vestments,

Phrygium (Lat), orphrey.
Pluviale (Lat.), cope.
Poderis (Lat.), alb.
Poruche (Rus.), maniple.
Regnum (Lat.), tiara.
Roba (Lat.), university gown.
Roc (A.-S.), tunicle or dal-
matic.
Sabatyns "1 (O.-Eng.), stock-
Sabbatoncsj ings.
Sambuca (Lat.), pastoral staff.

(TTOlXapLOVJ ^ '

Subtile (Lat.), tunicle.
Succinctorium (Lat.), sub-

cingulum.
Sudarium (Lat.), maniple.

Superhumerale (Lat.), alb.

Tibialia (Lat.), stockings.

Tilsan (Copt.), chasuble.

Toga = university gown.

Toumat (Copt.), alb.

Triregnum (Lat.), tiara.

Tunica alba (Lat.), alb.

Tunica talaris (Lat.), cassock ;
also university gown.

Tunicella (Lat.), tunicle.

vTTOjiavLKLa (Gk.), maniples.

Varkass = vakass.

Vestment(0.-Eng.), chasuble.

Virga pastoralis (Lat.), pas-
toral staff.

Zendo (Syr.), maniple.

Zona (Lat.), girdle.

APPENDIX III.

A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES REFERRED
TO IN THE COMPILATION OF THIS WORK.

*^* As this list is intended as a guide to the student rather
than as a criterion of the labour involved in writing this volume,
it has been reduced by the omission of classical and other texts
from which casual quotations have been made, and of many
books which the author consulted without obtaining any
information of value.
Badger (G. P.), The Nestorians and their Ritual. 2 vols.

London, 1852.
Bloxam (M. H.), Companion to the Principles of Gothic

Ecclesiastical Architecture. London, 1882.
Bock (F.), Geschichte der liturgischen Gewander des Mittel-

alters. 3 vols. Bonn, 1859.

List of Principal Authorities, 259

Bona y.)' Rerum liturgicarum libri duo. 3 vols. Turin,

1747-
Bonanni, Catalogo degli ordini religiosi della chiesa militante.

5 vols. Rome, 1722.
Calderwood (D.), Historie of the Kirk of Scotland. 8 vols.

Wodrow Society, Edinburgh, 1842-49.
Carter (J.), Specimens of English Ecclesiastical Costume.

London, 18 17.
Cripps (H. W.), A Practical Treatise on the Law relating to

the Church and Clergy. 6th edition. London, 1886.
Dolby (Anastasia), Church Vestments : their Origin, Use,

and Ornament. London, 1868.
Fabric Rolls of York Minster. Surtees Society, Durham,
1859. (Also several other volumes of the publications
of this Society.)
Fortescue (E. F. K.), The Armenian Church, founded by St

Gregory the Illuminator. London, 1872.
Haines (H.), A Manual of Monumental Brasses. Oxford,

1861.

Harrison (B.), An historical Enquiry Into the true Interpre-
tation of the Rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer.
London, 1845.

Hart (R.), Ecclesiastical Records of England, Ireland, and
Scotland from the Fifth Century till the Reformation.
Cambridge, 1846.

Hartshorne (C. H.), English Mediaeval Embroidery. Archaeo-
logical Journal, vol. I, pp. 3i8-335» vol. ii, pp. 285-301.

1845-47.
Hefele (C. J.), Beitrage zur Kirchengeschlchte, Archaologie

und Liturglk. 2 vols. Tubingen, 1864.
Howard (G. B.), The Christians of St Thomas and their

Liturgies. Oxford, 1864.
tssaverdens (J.), Armenia and the Armenians. 2 vols.

Venice, 1874.
Josephus, Works of, ed. RIchter. Leipsig, 1826.

26o 'Ecclesiastical Vestments,

King (J. G.), The Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek

Church in Russia. London, 1772.
Labbe (P.), and G. Cossart, Sacrosancta concilia ad regiam

editionem exacta. 18 vols. Paris, 1671-72.
Lanigan (J.), An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. 4 vols.

Dublin, 1822.
Marriott (W. B.), Vestiarium Christianum. London, 1868.
Martene (E.) and U. Durand, Thesaurus novus anecdo-

torum. 5 vols. Paris, 17 17.
Maskell, Monumenta ritualia ecclesiae anglicanae. Oxford,

1882.
Migne, Patrologia (almost all quotations from the early

church writers are taken from this edition). Paris,

1 849-64.
Moleon (le Sieur de), Voyages liturgiques de France. Paris,

1718.
Neale (J. M.), A History of the Holy Eastern Church.

4 vols. London, 1850.
Papal Letters (Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers

relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. W. H. Bliss).

London, 1893.
Paris (M.), Chronica majora. Ed. Luard. 7 vols. Rolls

Series. London, 1872-1883.
Pugin (A. W.), Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and

Costume. London, 1868.
Quick (J.), Synodicon in Gallia Reformata ; or the Acts,

Decisions, Decrees, and Canons of those Famous

National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France.

2 vols. London, 1692.
Reichel (O. J.), English Liturgical Vestments in the Thir-
teenth Century. London, 1895.
Renaudot (E.), Liturgiarum orientalium collectio. Paris,

1716.

Rock (D.), Church of our Fathers. 3 vols. London, 1849-
52.

List of Principal Authorities. 2 6 1

Rock (D.), Textile Fabrics : a Descriptive Catalogue of the
Collection of Church Vestments, [etc. in South Kensing-
ton Museum]. London, 1870.
Row (J.)> The History of the Kirk of Scotland from the
Year 1538 to August, 1637. Wodrow Society, Edin-
burgh, 1892.
Rubenius (A.), De re vestiaria veterum, praecipue de lato
clavo. In the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanorum of J.
G. Graevius, vol. vi, col. 913. Leyden, 1697.
Saussay (A. de), Panoplia clericalis libri xv. Paris, 1649.
Shaw (H.), Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages.

2 vols. London, 1853.
Smith (W.) and S. Cheetham, A Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities. London, 1875.
• Stothard (C. A.), Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
2 vols. London, 18 17.
Webb, Sketches of Continental Ecclesiology. London, 1848.
Wey (F.), Rome. London, 1872.

Willemin (N. X.), Monumens fran9ais inedits. 2 vols.
Paris, 1839.
Reference has also been made to the Church Times, the
Builder, and the principal archaeological periodicals and
publications of archaeological societies.

INDEX

Absolution, vestments worn at,

223
Acolytes, cassock of, 139

insignia of, 213, 214

Aethelwold, benedictional of, 115
Aix-la-Chapelle, chasuble at, 86
Alb. See also Alba, 64

noaterial and colour of, 65

ornamentation of, 66, 151

plain, when worn, 67

symbolism of, 68, 69

dimensions of, 69

modifications of, 140, 141

contrary to English Church

law, 201

by whom worn, 214

Alba. See also Alb, Dalmatica,

Roba Talaris
by whom and when worn,

28, 30

origin of, 29, 31

description of, 30

canons respecting, 30

ornamentation of, 32, 59

baptismal, 36, 37

of newly baptized, 171

sigillata, bullata, dd

in Gallican church, 135

Eastern equivalent of, 178

Alcuin (pseudo-) quoted, 34, 64,

69, 77.89, 96, 103, III, 149
Almuce, description of, 142
distinctions of ecclesiastical

rank in, 142
derivation of name, 142

Almuce, evolution of, 143-146

worn under Eucharistic vest-
ments, 219

in the universities, 256

Amalarius of Metz quoted, 52, 68,
T], 89, 92-95, 103, 122

Ambrose cited, 38

Amess. See Almuce

Amice, 64

origin of, 71

how, by whom, and when

worn, 71, 214

description of, 71

symbolism of, 72

ornamentation of, 151

vakass borrowed from, 188

Amys. See Almuce

Anastasius Bibliothecarius
quoted, 34

Anglican church, vestments in,
194 et seqq.

Apparels, 153

Aquinas, St Thomas, cited, 132

Archdeacons, supposed, in St
David's Cathedral, 80

Aregius, Bishop, receives dal-
matica, 54

Armenian church, baptismal rite
in, 171

vestments of, 176 etseqq,

Augustine cited, 38

Aurelian, his grant of oraria to
the Romans, 38

Autun, MS. at, on vestments of
the Gallican church, 29, 135

Index,

263

Autun, Honorius of. See Honorius
Bishops of, their privileges,

102
Auxanius, circumstances of his

receipt of the pallium, 51

Bamberg, Bishops of, their privi-
leges, 102
Bands, origin and development of,
208

when worn in Presbyterian

church, 209
Baptismal vestments of adminis-
trator, 36, 122, 222 ; of baptized,
171

alba, 36

stole, 222

Bells and pomegranates, 6
Benedict III, life of, quoted, 66
Benediction of vestments, 212
Biretta, birettum, 150, 201
Bishops, insignia of, 27, 28, 213

stole, how worn by, 74

dalmatic of, 79

wearing archiepiscopal in-
signia, 102

subcingulum once worn by,

107
vestments worn by, on dif-
ferent occasions, 221. See also
under the names of different
vestments
Bloxam quoted, 80
Bonanni quoted, Appendix i
Boniface VIII adds crown to

tiara, 121
Bonnet of Levitical priest, 5
Brachialia, 122

Braga, Councils of. See Council
Breastplate of the ephod, 9
Breeches, 4
Bucer quoted, 195
Bullinger quoted, 104
Buskins. See Stockings
Byrrhus, 33

Caligae. See Stockings
Calliculae, 59
Canons. See Council
Canon's cope, 148, 220
Cap, Levitical, 5
ecclesiastical, 149

Cap, Malabar, 177

university, 256

Cappa, monastic, 235

serica, 148

manicata, 256

clausa, 256

See also Cope

Caputium, 235, 254

Cardinals wear scarlet cassock, 139

Carthage, Council of. 6"^^ Council

Cashel, crozier of, 127

Cassianus quoted, 44

Cassikin, 204

Cassock, description of, 138

distinction of ecclesiastical

rank in, 139

modern, 139

in Presbyterian church, 207

in universities, 255

Casula in Gallican church, 29,

135

secular, 43, 44

See also Chasuble

Celebrant, vestments of, 214
Celestine, Pope, his letter on

vestment ritual, 26, 46, 57
Cencio de Sabellis quoted, 107,

108
Chain, golden, 103
Xa/iaXai;x'7. 1 76, 1 88, 234
Chambre, Will, de, quoted, 14 1
Charles I, his ordinance respect-
ing vestments, 204
Charles the Great, 60
Chasuble {see also Planeta), 64

materials of, 81

eucharistic and processional,

82

description and varieties of,

83,84

dimensions of, 86

ornamentation of, 86, 152

symbolism of, 89

forbidden in English church,

201

folded, when worn, 215

Childebert consents to bestowal of

pallium, 51
Chimere, 148, 199
Chirothecae. See Gloves
Choir, vestments of, 148, 220
Chorkappa, 194

264

Index

Chrismale, 171

Chrysome, 172

Cicero quoted, 43

Cidaris, 112

Clark, Professor E. C, quoted,
253, ^/ seqq.

Clavi, 31, 32, 42, 49, 58, 80

Clement, liturg>' of, 15, 19

Coat of fine linen, 4

Collar, Roman, 148

Colobium, 32-36

in the universities, 256

Colours, liturgical, unknown in
Early church, 58

in Western church, 223

in Eastern church, 230

Commodus, t,t,

Consecration of Archbishop Par-
ker, 198

Constantius, 17

Cope, origin of, 146

description and material of,

146

hood of, 147

morse of, 147

canon's, 148, 220

ornamentation of, 153

for most part forbidden in

English church, 201

worn by minister, 217

university, 256

Corinthians, First Epistle to,
quoted, 22

Cornette, Cornetum, 255

Coronation robes, 162. See Dal-
matic, imperial

Cotta, 141

Council, second of Braga, 40

fourth of Braga, 40, 41

fourth of Carthage, 30

of Mayence, 41

first of Narbonne, 30

fourth of Toledo, 27, 31, 35,

39» 53. 55. 64, 114, 122

See also Synod

Coverdale, vestments worn by, 198

cited, 200

Cross-staff, 125, 130

Crozier. See Pastoral staff

Cuthino, 177, 180

Cyprian, St, of Carthage, 33

C3'ril, Bishop of Jerusalem, 17

Dalmatic {see also Dalmatica), 64

derived from alba, 78

episcopal and diaconal, 79,

214

ornamentation of, 80, 152

symbolism of, 79, 81

by whom worn, 214

imperial, 229

Dalmatica, a vestment in Rome,

29. 45. 53

secular, 32

Sylvester's decree concern-
ing. 34

Isidore on, 35

David wears ephod, 8

Deacon, insignia of, 28, 34, 52,

214

when to wear alba, 30

Sylvester's decree respecting

vestments of, 34, 52

stole, how worn by, 74

dalmatic of, 79

folded chasuble, when worn

by, 215
Degrees, Mediaeval university, 253
how distinguished by dress,

254
De Saussay quoted, 58
Destruction of vestments, 168
Development of vestments, chaps.

i-iii passim
Doctors of Divinity wear scarlet

cassocks, 139

wear gray almuces, 142

Doeg, 8

Dol, Bishops of, their privileges,

102
Dolby, Mrs, quoted, 69, 144, 149
Dominica in albis depositis, 172
Dorsal orphrey, 88
Doubles, 220
Drawers, 4

Dublin, Synod of. See Synod
Duchesne quoted, 50
Dunstan, St, figure of, 97, 116, 118
Durandus quoted, io5, 134, 172
Durham Rites quoted, 167

Eastern Churches, vestments of,

chap. V
'EyKoXTTtoi/, 176, 188, 191
Elagabalus, 33

Index.

265

Embroidery. See Apparels,

Orphreys

Oriental, 162

England, excellence of embroidery

in, 163
destruction of vestments in,

169

vestments of church of, 194

Ephod, description of, 6, 7

girdle of, 7

by whom worn, 8

worshipped, 8, 9

proper name, 9

breastplate of, 9

Latin name for amice, 257

'ETTiyovariov, I08, 176, 186, 191
'ETTiiJiaviKia, 136, 176, 180, 191,

233

Epiphanius quoted, 113

Epitogium, 254

'ETTtrpax'/X'oi', 50, 176, 1S2, 191,

Estla, 190

Eucharistic vestments, chap, iii

chasuble, 82

'E^wXa^aXavxih 1 76, 1 88, 191
Exodus, book of, quoted, 4-8

■ Fabius, 33
Fagius quoted, 195
Ferula, 58

Fife, Synod of. See Synod
Final period of vestments, chap, iii
Flower of chasuble, 89
Folkestone ritual case, 201
Fountains Abbey mitre, 119

Gallican church, vestments of, 29,

135

Gammadia, 58

Garland, baptismal, 171

Genesis of vestments, chap, i

Geneva gown, 208

Georgi quoted, 106

Germanus quoted, 18, 175, 178,

184
Germany, vestments in, 193
Gideon, 8
Girdle, Levitical, 4

of ephod, 7

ecclesiastical, 64, 70. See

also ^wj'j;

Girdle, contrasted with subcingu-
lum, 107, 109

Gloves, 64

when recognised as vest-
ments, 121

symbolism of, 122

ornamentation of, 152

by whom worn, 214

Gold plate, apostolic, 112

Golden chain (loop of pall), 103

Gona, 254

Gown, black preaching, 202, 204

monastic, 235

university. See Toga

See also Geneva gown

Gregory the Great quoted, 28, 45,
51, 52, 104

picture of, 54

sacramentary of, 55

Gypciere, loS

Headdress, ecclesiastical, 149

university, 256

High Priest, vestments of, 6 et seq.
Holland, church of, vestments in,

22, 210
Homer cited, 20
Honorius of Autun quoted, 64, 69,

75, 103, 109, in, 121, 122,123,

131

Hood of chasuble, 82

of cope, 147, 153

monastic, 235

university, 254

Hope, Mr St John, quoted, 144,

166
Hosea quoted, 8
Humeral orphrey, 88
Hurrara, 190

Infulae, 118, 129

Innocent HI quoted, 58, 64, 69,

75, 89, 96, 103, 107, 131, 134,

225
Innocent IV covets English

orphreys, 163
Institution of bishops, 55
Inventory of Boniface VIII, 75

Canterbury, 65

Dover, 65

Lincoln, 81, 129, 158, 166

London, St Mary Hill, 141

266

Index.

Inventory of Peterborough, 65,

66,68

Westminster, 65, 70, 218

Winchester, 65, 129

Irish crozier, 126, et seqq.

Isidore of Seville, 27, 35, 54, 55,

56, 58, 112, 115, 122, 126
Issues of the Exchequer quoted,

164
Ivo of Chartres quoted, 52, 64,

69, 89, 96, 105, III, 122

James I prescribes vestments for

Scotland, 203
Jerome, 15-18, 114
Jewel, Bishop, cited, 104
Jewish vestments, 2-14, 18, 136
Joannes Diaconus, his portrait of

Gregory I, 54
John, Bishop of Ravenna, 53
Josephus quoted, /\- 10 pas si j?i
Judges, Book of, 8, 9

Kamelauch, 234
Ki^apig, 112
Kodi, 177, 186
KoXojSiov. See Colobium
Kulpas, 189

Lampridius quoted, 33, 43, 44

Aa/i7rp6e, meaning of, 19

Landulphus, pontifical of, 40

Laoghaire, druids of King, their
prophecy, 115, 128

Lector, 213

Leo III, 58

Letters on vestments, 59

Levitical vestments. See Jewish

Limerick mitre, 120

Lincolnshire, destruction of vest-
ments in, 170

Lineae = tails of pall, 104

Linen breeches, 4

tunic, 4

Liripipe, 254

Liturgical colours. See Colours

Liturgy of Clement. 6ee Clement

Lituus, 56

Aiopia, 180

Lucca, Bishops of, their privileges,
102

Luther, reformation of, 193

Macarius, 17
Mafors, 246
Maimonides quoted, 4
Malabar vestments, 177 ei seqq,
'^lavlbaq, 176, 187, 191, 234
Manicae, 121, 135
Maniple, 64, 180. See also
Mappula

description of, 75

symbolism of, 77

ornamentation of, 151

by whom worn, 214

Mantelletum, 199

Mantellum, 245, 255

Mantle, 210

Manualia, 29, 135

Mappula, a Roman vestment, 29,

^^5 • • r
origm of, 52

spread of, 53, 54

Marriott quoted, 15, 16, 19, 25,

29, 50. 62, 94, 115, 122

Martene, 29

Mayence, Council of. See Council

Menard, 115

Mesnaemphthes, 5

Messesjorta, 194

Messhake, 194

Micah, 8

Minerva Library, pontifical in, 37

Minister, dress and duties of, at

mass, 217, 219, 220

Mitre, Levitical, 10

ecclesiastical, 64

origin of, 1 12

early, 1 14

development of, 1 16

infulae of, ii8

ornamentation of, 118

various kinds of, 119

by whom worn, 214

Monastic dress, appendix i

Eastern, 234

Monuments, etc., cited —

Arundel, 156

Bamberg, 102, 125

Bathampton, 85

Beverley, 71, 157

Birmingham, 145

Broadwater, 156

Caerleon, 49

Cambridge, 150

Index,

267

Monuments, etc., cited— continued

Chesham Bois, 172, 173

Cobham, 145

Ely, 74, 133, 202

Fontevraud, 230

Fulbourne, 156

Havant, 156

Hereford, 145, 219

Horsham, 220

Kilkenny, 90

Liibeck, 193

Mayence, 100, 117, 118, 125

Milton, 77

Norwich, 219

Oxford, 125, 145

Randworth, 78

Ravenna, 46

St David's, 80

Salisbury', 1 17

Sessay, 147

Shelford, Great, 156

Towyn, 71

Wells, 144, 201, 215, 216,
219

Winwick, 83

Worcester, 67

Wyvenhoe, 76
Morse, no, 147
Mozetta, 142, 148
Msane, 190

Names of vestments, 68
Narbonne, bishop of, rebuked, 26

council of. See Council

Nestorian vestments, 189
Nicholas I, Pope, 51
Numbers, Book of, quoted, 9

'Qlio(p6piov, 50, 176, 187, 191, 233
Orale, 64, 134, I53
'Qpapiov, 50, 176, 184, 191, 233
Orarium, 27, 28, 47i 73- -^^'^ ^^^^

Stole

derivation of name, 38

secular, 38, 49

canons respecting, 39, 40, 41

origin of, 38, 49, 50

Oriental embroidery, 162
Origin of vestments, chap, i
Ornamentation of vestments, 58,

66, S7, \Soet seqq.
Ornaments rubric, 200

Orphreys, 72, 73, 87, 88, 153

Orro, 177, 184

Ostia, Bishops of, their privileges,

102
Ostiarius, 213
Ouches, 7

Paenula, 43, 44, 49i 186

Pall, 64, 187. See also Pallium

material and development of,

96

history of individual speci-
mens, 99

by whom and when worn,

96, 100, 102

symbolism of, 102

cost of, 104

not ornamented, 98, 152

Pallium, monastic cloak, 26, 46,

^35' 245

vestment = pall, 29, 47-5 1>

135

linostimum, 34, 40, 52

Paris, Matthew, quoted, 163
Parker, consecration of Arch-

"bishop, 198
Pasbans, 177, 182
Pastoral staff, 27, 64 ^

by whom carried, 28, 57,

214

origin of, 56

description and development

of, 57, 126 et seqq.
erroneous views concerning,

124

Irish form of, 1 26 et seqq.

infula of, 129

symbolism of, 129, 1 31

IlarEpecro-a, 176, 188, 191

Paul, St, quoted, 22, 35

Pavia, Bishops of, their privileges,

102
Peacock, Mr E., quoted, 170
Pectoral cross, 134, 188, 189, 191

orphrey, 88

Pelagians, Jerome's letter against

the, 17, 19
Pellicea, 140
Periods of history of vestments,

25
Perizona, 109
ntraXov, 112, 113

268

Index,

^aCKovT], 35

Phaino, 177, 186

^aivoKiov^ 176, 186, 191, 233, 234

Pileus, 151, 256. See also Cap

Pins of pall, 97, 98

symbolism of, 104

Planeta, 28

secular, 44

Plate, gold on mitre, Levitical, 10

apostolic, 112

Plautus quoted, 43

Pollux, Julius, quoted, 43

Polybius cited, 20

Polycrates quoted, 113

Poor-ourar, 176, 184

Pope, grant of pall by, 51, 99, 214

his bearing the pastoral staff,

57, 131
insignia of, 105, 106, 119,

130, 134, 135, 139, 214
Prayer-Book of 1549, 195

1552, 197

^1559. 197

Prazona, 190

Pre-sanctified, Mass of, 217, 220
Presbyterians, vestments of, 205
Priests, insignia of, 27, 41, 74,

214
Priest's cap, Levitical, 5
Primitive period of vestments,

chap, i, 25
Processional vestments, chap, iv

chasuble, 82

Pseudo-AIcuin. See Alcuin

Rabanus Maurus quoted, 12, 62,

68, 89, 92, 96, 122
Rational, 64, 110-112, 152
Ravenna, mosaics at, 4648

John, Bishop of, 53

Reformed churches, vestments of,

chap, vi
Reichel, Rev. O. J., 50
Requiem, vestments worn at, 223
Rhinthon cited, 43
Ring, 54, 64
by whom worn, 27, 54, 214,

228
description and symbolism

of, 123
Ripon Treasurer's Rolls quoted,

174

Ritual uses of vestments, chap, vii
Roba Talaris, 254
Robe of the ephod, 6
Rochet, 141, 199

Rock, Dr, quoted, 48, 49, 66, 67,
75, 85, 106, 108, 114, 115, 134,

135. 144
Roman civil costume, 14 et seqq.^

chap, ii passim
Rubenius, Albertus, quoted, 38
Rulers of the choir, their insignia,

131, 221

Sabanum, 171

Sabellis, Cencio de, 107, 108

Sacramentary of Gregory the

Great, 55
Sagavard, 177, 188, 189
2rtK:/cog, 176, 188, 191, 234
Salisbury missal quoted, 68
Sampson, Thomas, quoted, 199
Samuel, Book of, quoted, 8

wears ephod, 8

Sandals, 64

development and description

of, 90» 91, 95
by whom worn, 91, 214

symbolism of, 92 et seqq.^

96

ornamentation of, 91, 152

Armenian, 189

Saul, 8

Scapular, 235, 245

Scarf of honour, 1^

of English church, 203

of Presbyterian church,

207

Scarlet days, 255

Scipio, 33

Scotland, vestments in, 203

Act of Assembly of church

of, 209
Senchus Mor cited, 128
Septuagint cited, 18
Severus, edict concerning paenula,

43
Shaesha, 234
Shapich, 176, 180
Shoes, Malabar. 177
Shoochar, 177, 189
Shorshippa, 190
Simples, 220

Index.

269

Simplicity of early vestments,

Sinker, Dr., quoted, 113

Spain, vestments in, 204

Staff. See Pastoral Staff

Stockings, 64

by whom worn, 105, 214

symbolism of, 105

ornamentation of, 152

Srotxapiov, 176, 178, 191, 233

Stola in Gallican church, 29, 135
See also Orarium, Stole

Stole, 64, 182

origin of, 72

description of, "Jl, 75

how worn, 74, 214

symbolism of, 75

ornamentation of, 1 51

Spanish, 204

worn by kings, 230

baptismal, 222

2roXj7, 18

Stolone, 215

Subcingulum, 64, 214

history of, 106 et seqq.

Subdeacons, insignia of, 28, 132,
214

Subiaco, fresco at, 108

Succinctorium. See Subcingulum

Sudarium, 50

Superpellicea, 140. See also Sur-
plice

Surplice, origin of, 140

development and description

of, 141

varieties of, 141

in England, 201

in Scotland, 204

when worn, 140, 217, 255

Sweden, vestments in, 194
Sylvester, Pope, decree respecting

dress, 34-36, 47, 52, 81
Symbolism, 56, 57, 68, 69, 70, 72,
75. 77^ 79. 81, 85, 89, 92-96,
102-105, 121, 123, 129, 131,
176, 180, 184, 187
Symmachus grants a pallium,

51

Synagogue models followed by

Early Christians, 13
Synod of Dublin, 169
Fife, 210

Tabard, 256

Talith, 14

Talmud quoted, 10

Temple worship, 13

Teraphim, 9

Tertullian quoted, 114

Theodore, Archbishop of Laurea-

cus, 51
Theodoret quoted, 17, 18
Thomas of Canterbury, St, his

chasuble, 86
Tiara, 112

papal, 119, 121

Tippet, 254, 255
Toga, 42, 45, 48

university, 254

Toledo, Council of. See Council
Transitional period of vestments,

chap, ii
Trebellius Pollio quoted, 29
Treves, Pope bears pastoral staff

in, 132
Tunic of linen, 4, 30

of blue, 6

monastic, 235

Tunica Alba. See Alba

Dalmatica. See Dalmatica

Manicata, 32

Tunicle, 64

description of, 132

by whom worn, 132, 214

ornamentation of, 133, 153

illegal in English church,

201

University costume, 253

Urban V. adds crown to tiara,

Vakass, 176, 188

Valerian quoted, 30

Value of vestments, 164

Vartabeds, insignia of, 1S9

Velum, 245

quadrigesimale, 228

Verona, Bishops of, their privi-
leges, 102

Vestimentum parvolum in Gallican
church, 29, 135

Vesting, order of, 217, 231

Vienne, Bishop of, rebuked,
26

270

Index,

Vigilius, grant of a pallium by,

51
Virgilius, Archbishop of Aries,

51
Vopiscus, Flavius, quoted, 38

Walafrid Strabo quoted,
81

62.

Waldenses, vestments among, 206

Zando, 177, 182

Zwj/j;, 176, 186, 191, 234

Zosimio, Procurator of Syria,

30
Zunnara, 190
Zunro, 177, 186

THE END.

Elliot Stock. Paternoster R 01V. London.

ERRATA.

Page 47, line 2, for maniple read mappula.
Page 61, line 2, for Walfrid read Walafrid.
Page 74, line i of footnote, yijr Goodrich r^a^ Goodrick.
Page ^T, line 3 of footnote, /(jrWhittlesford read Milton.
Page 106, last line, y^r succinctorium read subcingulum (also called
succinctorium ').
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